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A PRINCESS OF VASCOVY 


HER TRIALS AND TROUBLES 
HER ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES 
AND WHERE THEY BROUGHT HER 



JOHN OXENHAM 

\\ 

AUTHOR OF 

“ God’s Prisoner,” “ The Coercion of Santa Claus,” 
“ The Mystery of the Underground,” 

Etc., Etc. 



NEW YOR K: 

G, W. Dillingham Co,y Publishers ^ 

MDCCCXCIX. 

1 


t'' .«■ ■ 


Copyright 1899, by 

G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY. 


wvOCOPltcv KtCElV£ 0 , 





CONTENTS. 


BOOK I— WANDERLUST. 

Chapter Page 

I. Like Father, like Daughter ... 7 

II. This is to Live 14 

III. A Death-trap 18 

IV. Flight 25 

V. Pursuit 30 

VI. Safety and Defeat 40 

VII. The Family Cupboard . . . -44 

VIII. Wooed and Married and •? . . 50 

IX. The Isle of Peace 57 

X. The Spoiling of Raataua . . -67 

XL The Great Catastrophe . . . -77 

XII. Picking up the Threads . . . .84 

XIII. A Man, A Woman, and a Boat . . 90 

XIV. Over the Sea with a Sailor . . . 100 

XV. Fallen Among Friends .... 105 

XVI. En Route once more . . . .114 

XVII. Into the Midst of Alarms . . .122 

XVIII. The Grip of the Law .... 128 

XIX. ‘‘ into the Fire.” . . .138 

XX. Silver Linings 148 

XXL A Final Test of Fortune . . .159 


[5] 


6 


CONTENtS. 


BOOK IL— HEIMWEH. 

Chapter Pack 

XXII. How They came to their Own Coun- 
try 165 

XXIII. A Warm Reception and a Cold Chill. 173 

XXIV. A Cool Reception and a Warm Wel- 
come .181 

XXV. Into the Family Cupboard. . . 192 

XXVI. Down many Stairs to Heaven. . . 201 

XXVII. Some Plain Talk with a King . .210 

XXVIII. In the Royal Tiger’s Claw. . . 216 

XXIX. Through the Shutters. . . . 226 

XXX. The King’s First Visit . . .233 

XXXI. The King’s Last Visit . . .239 

XXXII. The King is Dead ! Long live the 

King ! 246 

XXXIII. A Question of Hours. . . . 253 

XXXIV. A Duel in the Dark and a Clearance. 263 
XXXV. Ladies and Gentlemen — The King ! . 273 
XXXVI. Where is the King? . . .284 

XXXVII. The Reproach of Alplanau. . . 294 

XXXVIII. “ We Hold the King.” . . .299 

XXXIX. Getting Closer . . . . • 311 

XL. Wheels within Wheels. . . . 320 

XLI. Distinguished Visitors for the Castle. 326 
XLII. The most Distinguished Visitor of all. 329 
XLIII. Two Brides on whom the Sun Shone 

bright . . . . . .336 


A Princess of Vascovy, 


BOOK I.— WANDERLUST. 


CHAPTER L 

LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 

He was lying, stretched to the fullest extent of his 
six foot two, in one pf the most comfortable lounging 
chairs in the smoking room of the “ Waldorf ” in New 
York City, and his whole attitude was expressive of the 
greatest satisfaction — the satisfaction of a wanderer 
returned for a spell to the amenities and refinements of 
civilization. 

From several points of view he felt it very good to be 
there. His cigar with its long unbroken white ash was 
of the finest. The ice tinkled merrily in his glass, as he 
set it down on the low table by his side. The pressure 
of a finger would bring to his side an obsequious arrange- 
ment in black and white who would minister to his 
extremist wish. 

Yes, it was good to be there, and yet — his thoughts 
turned back longingly to the mighty river, the trackless 
forests, the snow-clad heights, with the still blue lakes 
lying lapped in their silent bosoms, from which he had 
just come. 

He had been in pretty nearly every land where civi- 

r;] 


tllCE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 


Hzed man was una ccustomed to go, but these mighty and 
seductive mysteries of the head- waters of the Amazon 
had brought more satisfaction to his soul and to the 
craving that was in him, than any other of the lands in 
which he had wandered. 

What a magnificent country it was ! Nature at her 
boldest and best. Virgin Nature, too, at all events so 
far as the white man was concerned, for in many of the 
places from which he had come his was the first civilized 
foot to tread their solitudes or ruffle their placid waters 
with his alien paddle. 

He had been two long days in New York, and already, 
in spite of his bodily enjoyment of his surroundings, the 
gipsy in his blood was beginning to burn again with the 
impatient lust of travel. 

He had not half finished the Amazon. He had barely 
touched the enigma of its many rival sources, and he 
was hungry to be back amid its rolling magnificences. 

An accident had brought him back to civilization. An 
accident to his travelling- companion — the simple final 
accident of all. He had died up there in the shadow of 
the Andes, and Roustaine, in fulfilment of a promise ex- 
torted by the dying man, had travelled eight thousand 
miles to execute certain death-bed commissions of res- 
titution and recognition. 

He had carried out to the full all his friend’s wishes, 
and had done all he had to do, and New York had begun 
to pall upon him. The ceaseless, restless, nervous bustle 
jarred his every instinct, tuned to the finer notes of the 
wilderness. 

There was no steamer back to Lima for yet another 
ten days. Why, he would almost have time to run over 
to — Good Heavens! He sat up with a start, and hauled 
out a note-book and turned to the front leaf. Yes, the 
sixteenth was the child’s birthday, and he had all but 
forgotten it. His mind had been running so much upon 
his friend’s business that matters concerning himself 
had got crowded out. He ground his teeth twice and 
knit his brow at thought of his thoughtlessness. He 
would go over, of course. This was the eighth — just time, 
if he could strike a boat at once. 


LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 9 

He reached out a long arm and just managed to press 
le button in the wall. 

“ Will you oblige me by finding out which is the first 
Dat sailing for Queenstown, and enquire if there is a 
. )od state-room still to be had,” he said to the waiter. 

“ There is the ‘ Carinthia,’ day after to-morrow,” said 
e man. 

“ Nothing sooner ?” asked Roustaine. 

“ ‘ Cryptic,’ to-morrow rnorning. That would be too 
on.” 

“ Ask them at the ofiice to telephone to the White Star 
. ople and inquire if I can have a room on the ‘ Cryp- 
: .’ A deck cabin, if possible.” 

The man nodded and retired, and returned inside a 
quarter of an hour to say that No. 8 deck cabin on the 
“ Cryptic ” was available for immediate reply, and that 
she sailed at eight in the morning. 

“ Thank you. Be so good as to secure me Niimber 
Eight. Send my bill up to my room now, and have me 
called at 6:30. Have breakfast ready at seven sharp, 
and tell them to have my things in a cab at the door at 

7:15-" 

A born traveller, this man — a wanderer by choice — a 
rambler in the uttermost parts of the earth from pure 
love of change and utter inability to settle anywhere. 
Born to the highest station, he had deliberately cast aside 
his birthright and its shackles and had chosen to live the 
free, unfettered life to which he was impelled by the 
gipsy strain which had somehow and somewhen worked 
into the blood of an ancient royal house. 

:f: * * 

“ Miss Roustaine is wanted in the drawing-room.” 

The neat maid-servant closed the door of the class- 
room, and retired to her own quarters, and informed the 
cook that that was as fine a figure of a man as^e had’ 
ever seen, and as brown as a berry. ^ 

Alicia Roustaine started up with a greaf li^t in her 
eyes, and a rich glow of hope fulfille^^iantling her 
cheeks, She dropped books, pencils, and paper fjom. 


lO LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 

her lap to the floor, bowed to Mademoiselle, and hurried 
out of the room. 

For days and weeks past her heart had been hunger- 
ing for this summons, and fearing lest it should not 
come. 

It was her seventeenth birthday, and when her father 
did happen to be in England, or within say a week’s 
travel of it, he never failed to see her on her birthday. 
And as a rule the festivities extended over a full week, 
during which thqy stopped at the Savoy in London, or 
the Continental in Paris, and had a right glorious time 
of it, on the memories of which Alicia existed for the 
next twelve months. 

She hurried along the passage from the class-room, 
crossed the front hall, and entered the drawing-room. 

- Madame was sitting there in state, talking to the tall, 
bronzed man who sprang up and met the girl with both 
hands outstretched, and a kiss on each cheek. Then he 
held her off at arm’s length with a strong brown hand 
on each . graceful shoulder, and looked at her with sur- 
prised and gratified eyes. 

“ What a big girl you’re getting, Alix,” he said, and 
then his keen dark eyes dimmed for a moment at her 
startling likeness to her mother. 

“ You look strong and well, too, my dear. She speaks 
well for your care, Madame,” he said, with a bow towards 
the school-mistress, who had risen and was making for 
the door. Then to his daughter again, “ It is a great 
comfort to me to find you so happy here, my child.” 

“ No, Father,” said Alix vehemently, “ I am not happy 
here,” and Madame’s exit was stayed, and she turned 
with a look of surprised inquiry towards the gfirl. 

“ Oh, it is not your fault, Madame Chalot, not in the 
least little bit. It is all my own — and his. Father, don’t 
leave me behind again. Take me with you. We t'^o 
are alone in the world. Why should we not be together ? 
My bj^od is the same as yours, and the gipsy in me is 
Just us strong as in you. It kills me to stop in one place. 
I want' ftie whole earth to wander in,” and she stretched 
qut her sha^y hands and arms in a gesture which mad^i 
a^tliotigh to gather the universe into her embr^g^, 


LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. II 

“ It seems to suit you all the same,” said her father, 
smiling at her vehemence. 

“ Ah ! I have kept it all in till you should come this 
time, and now,” she said, with an emphasis born of feel- 
ing long repressed, “ I want to go with you, and never 
to leave you again.” 

It was two years since he saw her last. She was then 
a tall, slim slip of a girl of fifteen. He had been amused 
at that time to note the outcrop of the gipsy in her too, 
in the clear dark skin, and the great black eyes -jvhich 
swam or blazed as the mood dictated. His family as a 
rule were fair, but every now and then in one or other 
of its many branches, the family strain would break out, 
and wherever the outward and visible signs appeared, 
there as a rule, though the rule was not entirely with- 
out its exceptions, the fire and fever of travel burned 
within, and until the fire burned out and the fever ran 
its course, there was no settling down to the humdrum 
of ordinary life for its fortunate or unfortunate possessor. 

Now she stood before him in all the pride of her 
seventeen years, a most striking and attractive person- 
ality, full of characteristic graces, and of a beauty re- 
markable, as he proudly acknowledged to himself, even 
in a family renowned for the beauty of its women and 
the valour of its men. There was a clean-cut, well- 
groomed, ready-for-anything-at-a-moment’s-notice look 
about her that commended itself to him greatly; not a 
stray hair, not a loose ribbon to the tailor-made gown 
which fitted her with masculine exactitude; an evident 
disdain of the ordinary frivolities of feminine adorn- 
ment ; ripe curving lips tightened at the moment into a 
tiny pucker of determination, a face moulded in sweet 
girlish curves, high spirit and high breeding in her up- 
right carriage and supreme grace of movement, in the 
poise of her head with its wealth of shining coils, and in 
the fearless gaze of the wonderful dark eyes, which 
could shine as soft as stars looking up from the sea, but 
now were all ablaze with eager anticipation. 

That was Alix Roustaine as her father saw her that 
day, and as Madame Chalot and her schoolfellows saw 
J]Qr, Perhaps the latter, if pushed, might have whis- 


12 


LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 


pered of a somewhat imperious disposition — queen-like, 
said her friends, haughty, said the others — but it was 
more than condoned by her unfailing good humour and 
high spirit, and by a generosity which knew no bounds, 
and in any case it was simply her natural self, and to- 
gether with her beauty and the heart that beat against 
the bars, and many other things of which at present she 
knew nothing, was all a part of her great heritage into 
the fullness of which she was only to enter by strange 
and trying paths. 

In every European war which afforded them the 
slightest excuse for taking a hand in it, the men of their 
house had fought bravely and well. The dark-haired, 
black-eyed men, in whom the gipsy strain came out, 
fighting alongside their fair-haired, blue-eyed brothers 
and cousins of all degrees, but wandering off during the 
long slow times of peace to range the uttermost ends of 
the earth, while the others were content to settle down 
to the routine of courts and camps. While as to the 
women of their h .use, wherever among the royal and 
princely houses of eastern Europe you come across 
supreme feminine beauty, if you trace back far enough, 
sooner or later you will come across an intermarriage 
with this race. With the purely German houses, for 
reasons of their own they have not mingled much, 
though in the great 1870 death struggle \vith France 
their men fought magnificently, and left behind them a 
record for valour unsurpassed by any. 

But of all these things this girl knew nothing. Her 
father was Charles Roustaine. She knew he had fought 
through the French War before she was born, that" he 
had since become a notable traveller, and that he had 
received the R. G. S. gold medal for his extraordinary 
researches in Central Asia. Of the rest, nothing. 

Roustaine looked at his daughter musingly, rapidly 
turning over in his mind the pros and cons of the matter. 
He recognized as an old friend the spirit which was in 
her, and he.knew by experience, his own and his family’s, 
that sooner or later, one way or another, that spirit would 
have its way. He was at once glad and sorry, glad to 
recognise 30 much of himself m his child, sorry for her 


LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER. 1 3 

sake that her life would have to run so far out of the 
ordinary channels. But as it had to be, and as there 
was no escape from it, of the two he preferred that it 
should not be the other way in which the wild, bright 
spirit should find its vent, for in that other way there 
sometimes lay disaster. As it had to be, it was better 
that his should be the hand upon the helm. 

He was a man of quick decisions, and in his own 
mind the matter was decided, yet for her own sake he 
reasoned with her. 

“ But, my dear child, you have no idea what the life is 
like.” 

“ It is life, anyhow, arid the life of all lives I wish to 
live. Here I waste away. I am a bird in a cage, beating 
my heart out against the bars.” 

“ It is rough and hard.” 

“ It is better than dying here.” 

“ You cannot stand it.” 

“ I can stand anything, except standing still, living in 
one place. I want the whole world to li;:e in.” Her eyes 
blazed up into his. “ Take me with you, father. If you 
do not, some time you will find me gone. It is better I 
should go with you than wander off alone.” 

“ That sounds very like a threat, Alix.” 

“ Oh, no, no ! I do not mean it so. It is just the truth. 
You know it. You are just the same yourself. I can- 
not change my nature any more than you can.” 

“ And you really think you could rough it with me ?” 

“ Try me once,” she said, knitting her fingers till they 
cracked. 

“ Can you ride ?” 

“ I can ride anything.” 

“ Can you shoot ?” 

“ I have never had the chance of learning,” she sab. 
mournfully, but added hopefully, “ but my hand is stea 
and I have no nerves to speak of. I think I could shoot.” 

“ Can you row and swim ?” 

“ I can row, and paddle, and fence, and swim, and I 
can walk twenty- five miles.” 

“ Himmel ! What a girl ! Is there anything you cap- 
not dp ?” 


14 


THIS IS TO LIVE. 


“ Yes. I cannot sit still in one place.” And after a 
pause, “ Father, all my life, and all my thoughts and en- 
deavours, and every penny I have had, have been work- 
ing up to this moment. Don’t leave me behind again.” 

“ It will have to be so,” he said to himself. “ If it is 
in her, nothing else will satisfy it.” And then to her he said 
quietly, Soit ! You shall come , with me, and we will 
part no more.” 

“ Oh, father, father r She sprang at his neck, and 
knitted her arms round it, and kissed him wildly, so that 
he had difficulty in disengaging himself from her. 

“You will have to rough it as I do, you know.” 

“ Rough it ! I would go barefoot and in rags sooner 
than not go.” 


CHAPTER II. 

THIS IS TO LIVE. 

A travellers’ camp on the middle waters of the 
Parahon, one of the head-streams of the Amazon. 

Two small tents at the foot of a mighty tree, from 
whose lofty branches hung long stringy creepers like the 
slack rigging of a wreck. 

A dozen’ natives lolling about. 

Two canoes drawn up on to the precarious platform 
of matted undergrowth, which did duty for a river bank. 

A small fire smouldering on a flat stone in one of the 
canoes. 

So dense was the thicket-edging of the river-side, that 
they had had to hew out a nook for their camp from the 
solid density of the forest growth. A curious resting- 
place, with solid banks of bristling greenery all round, 
and the trunks of trees bared now for the first time, and 
looking strange and naked though their tops were rich 
Yuth leaf ^nd flower, 


THIS 1 


A white man almost as^ , i , ed as the n 
themselves, and another — v . ■: ■ istance and 

close at hand, at first view in ‘ v \ ible. The 
with its belted Norfolk jac - n ose trousers a. 

shooting boots laced up to th- the dress of a 

man, but the silvery voice Wc ! of a girl. Her 

face too was tanned a clear o.^ • but the great 

dark eyes were the eyes of AH • ne. 

Charles Roustaine himself ' smoking and 
smiling at some remark she h^ ■ . le. He won- 
dered to himself at times how b . er got on with- 

out her, she was such a charming companion. 

She was a born traveller, never one complaint had 
she uttered, no matter what the discomforts and dis- 
crepancies of the route. Her good humour and gaiety 
were spontaneous and unfailing, her point of view and 
the expression of it, were delightfully fresh and pi- 
quant. Life had taken on for him a novel and delight- 
ful charm since Alix came into it. He heaved a sigh now 
and then to think of the years he had missed. How 
much brighter and better worth living they would have 
been. Then he remembered that during these past 
years this present charming Alix was only in the mak- 
ing, that the present delight was the offspring of the 
lonely past, and he was satisfied with the enjoyment of 
the present. 

Alix had been flitting to and fro attending to her 
duties. These over, she came and sat down by his side, 
rolled a dainty cigarette, and smoked it with enjoyment. 
At home her father would have objected. On the head- 
waters of the Amazon it seemed, as it was, a natural and 
necessary proceeding. 

“ Well, Alix, still satisfied ? Does it still fulfil your 
expectations ?” 

“ Satisfied !” she exclaimed, stretching out her arms 
with her all-the- world-embracing gesture, “ it is heav- 
enly. I am living, I barely existed before, or rather I 
existed only in the hope of some day attaining to this. 
And you, dad ? Do I answer ? Am I a success from 
your point gf view ?” 


i6 


THIS IS TO LIVE. 


“ Absolutely. This has been the most enjoyable trip 
I ever had. Can you last out ?” 

“ Till the end of time,” she said, quietly. “ There is 
no break-down in me,” and after a pause, “ Is it possible 
I am the same Alix Roustaine who lived — no, mould- 
ered — at Madame Challot’s, only six months ago, and 
was not allowed out of bounds without a governess, and 
spoke French all day on Thursdays, and was confined to 
my bedroom twice a week on an average for doing the 
things I ought not to have done ? Is it possible ?” 

“ It is a change, isn’t it ?” said Roustaine, smiling. 

“ A change ! It is all the difference between heaven 
and the other place.” 

“ Poor Madame Chalot !” 

“ I have nothing against her, except that she was al- 
ways in one place.” 

“ I imagine this kind of life would hardly suit her.” 

Alix laughed merrily at the idea of Madame Chalot 
scouring the head waters of the Amazon in a couple of 
canoes with a dozen more or less scantily attired na- 
tives. 

“ Poor Madame Chalot’s annual journey to London 
was an adventure to her,” she said, “ and it took her 
quite a week to get over it.” 

One of the natives approached with a cringing obei- 
sance. 

“ Altissima,” he said in broken Spanish, “ Yacopo is 
ill. He cannot go on.” 

“ 111 ?” she said sharply. ” Why, what is the matter 
with him ?” 

“ He is ill in his inside, Altissima. I know not why.” 

“ But, Luiz, we must get on. You know the neces- 
siity.” 

“ I know, Altissima, but Yacopo is ill. He cannot go 
on.” 

“ What is to be done ?” she asked, turning to her 
father. “ It is not safe to wait here lest the Paorongs 
hear of our coming. We cannot leave Yacopo, and we 
cannot wait. I will go and see him,” she said, spring- 
ing up. 

To justify her existence Alix had taken off her fa:'- 


THIS IS TO LIVE. 


i; 

er’s hands most of the daily details of the expedition. 
She bossed the carriers and canoe-men, saw to the pro- 
visioning, and overlooked the cooking, the erection and 
striking of the tents, and in a hundred ways lightened 
the labours of the chief, so that he wondered often how 
he had ever managed to get on in such matters without 
her. 

Over the men, no matter what tribe or breed they 
belonged to, she had a wonderful influence. They 
would do for her at once and willingly what Roustaine 
himself could not get them even to look at. It was 
not only her quick imperious manner, her firmness aud 
tact and decision. There was that in her which the 
men could not understand, and which bent them all to 
her will. 

She was more or less of a mystery to them. In fact, 
one of the chief subjects of discussion and dispute 
around the camp fire at night was as to whether she was 
man or woman. She dressed quite like neither. She 
shot and rode and paddled like a man, but she nevei 
swore at them. She sang and laughed like a woma* 
but unlike most women she was always on deck, aler , 
resourceful, decisive, and outwardly and visibly she was 
subject to none of the moods and tenses and variable- 
ness of women. The very name by which her father 
called her, “ Alix,” was a puzzle to them. Was it a 
man’s name or a woman’s ? In doubt and as a sop to 
Cerberus, they called her “ Altissima,” and obeyed her 
instructions and bowed themselves to her will, as though 
she were indeed ruler by Divine right. 

She stepped warily after Luiz across the treacherous 
platform, which had an uncomfortable way of letting 
trespassers down into the depths, to the crowd of men 
standing round old Yacopo, who lay on the ground moan- 
ing dismally. She looked at him and endeavored to 
question him, but could extract nothing but groans. 

She came back presently to her father, and said, 

“ I believe he is only foxing, but we cannot do with 
any weak-kneed ones just now. I have ordered him to 
rest here one day, and then find his way back to his vil- 
lage with that thin fellow who hurt his leg the secon(3 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


I8 

day. We start as soon as it is dark, and Luiz assures 
me he knows every trick the Paorongs are likely to be up 
to.” 

“ It leaves us rather short-handed, doesn’t it?” 

“ Yes, but it is better to be short-handed than to have 
hands you can’t trust to.” 

He nodded acquiescingly through his smoke. This 
was the life he revelled in, the free, untrammelled life of 
the wilderness, full of perils and hair-breadth escapes, 
but still, as he often said to himself, no greater perils 
than one was subject to in New York or Paris or Lon- 
don, though no doubt the perils of the city were of a 
different kind and less apparent. Living thus, he had 
not a care in the world, and now, since Alix joined him, 
less than ever. Think of living in a city with houses 
and walls and streets and chimneys, — in Paris or Vienna 
or Roystadt or anywhere, while all the time this great 
brown river rolled down to the sea in silent majesty with 
none to view it. He heaved a great sigh of great con- 
tent and murmured, 

“ Alix, my child, this is to live.” 

“ Yes.” 


CHAPTER III. 

A DEATH-TRAP. 

As the shadows began to creep out over the river, the 
tents were struck, and the camp broken up, and the 
canoes loaded ready for the start. As soon as it was 
dark they pushed off into mid-stream and shot away into 
the night. 

Old Yacopo still lay on the ground, and the man with 
the wounded leg squatted silently by his side. When 
the boats had disappeared Broken Leg gave a grunt and 
old Yacopo sat up with a grin. In two minutes they had 


A DEATH-TRAP. 1 9 

disappeared into the forest in the direction which the 
boats had taken. 

All through the night the canoes ran swiftly down 
the stream. Before them lay the tightest place in the 
whole route, a veritable “ terra incognita,” so jealously 
guarded by its inhabitants that no traveller had ever 
been known to return from it to tell the tale of its won- 
ders and barbarities. 

Their only chance was to run past in mid-stream in the 
dark, and this they had planned to do. 

Roustaine crouched in the bow of the first boat, V/in- 
chester in hand and revolvers in belt, and in the bow of 
the second canoe knelt Alix, armed also with a specially 
built light rifle and a couple of revolvers. 

And so through the night, in utter silence, the expedi- 
dition ran down the windings and twistings of the Par- 
anon. 

So rapid was the current, that no more than an occa- 
sional touch of the paddle was needed to keep the boats 
running swiftly in mid-stream, but all the same the 
canoe-men sat, paddle in hand, ready at the word to 
double their speed, and shorten the critical time to the 
utmost. Suddenly, Luiz, who steered the first canoe, 
gave a guttural click, and away ahead and a little to the 
right Roustaine’s eye caught a palpitating coppery glow 
on the black dome of the sky. What it might mean he 
knew not. From the steersman’s click he understood it 
meant trouble. However, there was no halting and no 
turning back. 

“ Ready,” he whispered to hi^ men. 

They swept round a bend in the river, the current ran 
faster than ever, and in front lay an avenue of fire 
towards which they were sweeping as fast as the river 
could carry them. 

Both banks were ablaze with huge fires of light wood, 
which cast long shimmering illuminations full across the 
stream, and Alix got a brief weird impression of huge 
crosses like great capital X’s, standing up at intervals 
along both banks, and the fantastic shadows of leaping 
natives. 


20 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


They were evidently expected, and a warm reception 
awaited them. 

“ Give way,” hissed Roustaine. 

The paddles dipped and the boats shot forward. Then 
in an instant Alix saw the bow of her father’s boat rise 
suddenly out of the water as though struck from beneath, 
and in an instant it was gone. Before she could wonder 
at the catastrophe the same thing happened to her own 
boat. The bow flew up into the air, and she was in the 
water with the terrified canoe-men struggling all round 
her. 

She let herself float with the idea of getting down 
stream, but in another minute her course was arrested. 
Then strong hands laid hold of her with guttural excla- 
mations of surprise, and she was dragged across the ob- 
struction into a canoe and carried ashore. 

She lay there spent and panting, while a crowd of 
natives gathered round and wrangled over her. A shout 
from the river drew them away, and she sat up and 
looked round her. 

Another canoe had just landed and from it was dragged 
the limp body of Luiz the steersman. One who seemed 
in authority turned him over contemptuously with his 
foot, then said a word, and with a single stroke the head 
was severed from the body and tossed into the stream. 
That was all Alix saw of that part of the tragedy. 

When she found herself again it was broad day. A 
roof of matted sticks and leaves was over her head, and 
she was lying on a bed of soft sweet -smelling grasses. 
The sun streamed in through the open door, a bar of 
solid light unflecked with motes, and she lay idly watch- 
ing it and puzzling things out. 

What of her father ? The dull menace of the thought 
closed down on her like an iron shutter. The recollec- 
tion of Luiz’s trunkless head hurtling contemptuously 
into the water came back upon her, and she shuddered. 
Had her father been served the same way ? Had they 
spared her simply because she was a girl ? Horror ! Ver- 
ily, this was a change from Madame Chalot’s. Was it 
only last night that she and her father had talked of the 
difference the last six months had made, or was it years 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


21 


ago ? And she had said that this was the only life worth 
living. And now ! He was dead, and she was cap- 

tive in the hands of brutal savages, spared for what ? 
Worse than death, maybe. 

Into the solid shaft of light in the doorway stepped a 
figure with its back towards her, looking out over the 
river, a figure she knew so well. 

“ Father,” she cried, with all her soul in her voice, and 
the man turned. It was not her father but a very no- 
ble-looking man of much the same height and build and 
he certainly had somehow a look of Roustaine about him, 
so much so that Alix stared at him in wide-eyed amaze- 
ment. Later in his life this man committed as grave a 
fault as man could well commit, none the less he was a 
big-hearted man and he looked it, and his fault, grave 
as it was, was by God’s great mercy only in intention and 
not in fact, though of that he was not aware, and it led 
to very great results. 

“ I am sorry to disappoint you,” he said in English, 
stooping to the doorway, “ but happy to welcome you 
back to life.” 

“ My father ?” she said. “ My father ?” 

“ He is safe, but I am sorry to say he got a bad knock 
on the head in the overturn last night, and is still un- 
conscious. I do not think he is in any danger, and he is 
receiving every attention.” 

“ And are you the planner of this outrage ?” she asked 
imperiously. 

He smiled and said quietly, “ Of saving your lives, yes. 
But nothing more.” 

“ You give with one hand and take with the other,” she 
said. “ If you had not tried to take our lives, you would 
have had no need to save them.” 

“ So!” he answered quietly, and then under his breath 
and to himself in German, 

“ She is magnificent.” 

“ Renegade !” she said also in German. 

“ So!” Me answered quietly again, \vith a smile and a 
bow, “ Mademoiselle jumps to conclusions.” 

“ I wish to see my father.” 

“Certainly! Can you walk ?” 


22 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


She rose at once, but the spirit was stronger than the 
flesh, and on her feet she still found herself weak and 
dizzy. She clutched at his arm to save herself from 
falling. 

“ Wait,” he said, setting her down gently on the couch 
again. He went out and returned inside two minutes 
carrying in his hand the silver cup of a flask. 

“ Drink this,” he said. “ It is a cordial. It will pull 
you together.” 

She drank, and felt the strength of it run tingling to 
her heart and through her limbs. 

“ Now then,” he said, and offered her his arm. 

She rose without it, still somewhat unsteadily, and fol- 
lowed him. 

Her father was lying in a hut similar to the one she 
had just left, and on a similar couch of sweet grasses. 
On the ground by his side sat an Indian girl with a 
comely oval face and big dark eyes. She was fanning 
the unconscious man with a bunch of leaves, and occa- 
sionally damping his forehead and head with v/ater from 
a gourd. She rose when they came in, and after watch- 
ing them in silence for a time, she slipped away. 

As Alix bent down and kissed her father on the fore- 
head the strange resemblance which this other man bore 
to him struck her afresh, and she glanced up curiously 
to find the dark eyes of the stranger fixed upon her own 
with a distinct challenge in them. 

She sat down on the edge of the couch and stroked 
the unconscious man’s forehead tenderly and soothingly, 
with the tips of her fingers. 

His eyelids flickered to her touch and the other nodded 
approvingly. 

“ I do not think any serious harm is done,” he said. 

She did not even glance at him. 

He smiled at the spirit that was in her, and said gen- 

tiy. 

“ Pray do not misjudge me, Fniulein. I have done 
you no disservice. It is a great joy to me to be able to 
render you any assistance.” 

She took not the slightest notice of him. 

He went on,“ My pow^ers here are of the most limited, 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


23 


and my position is little less precarious than your own. 
I was not even on the spot when your — accident hap- 
pened. They saved your father and yourself because 
they thought they traced in him some resemblance to 
myself. It is their rule to spare no one. I am, I be- 
lieve, the only man who ever penetrated here and lived 
to tell the story. Now, Fraulein, will you tell me who 
you are and how you came here ?” 

“ My name is Alicia Roustaine.” 

“ Gott im Himmel ! And this is Charles Roustaine ?” 

“ You know my father ?” 

He was silent for a moment and then said, “ I know 
of him, as does all the world.” 

“ And you, mein Herr, your name ?” 

“ I am Karl von Rothstein.” 

He was eyeing her curiously and expectantly, but with 
a gaze full of the greatest admiration. 

His name awakened no response in her. It was evi- 
dently unknown to her, and a look of puzzled curiosity 
passed over his face. 

He was brimming with a great discovery, and he made 
as though to speak, then checked himself and remained 
silent. If the father had never enlightened his daughter 
as to her true name and history, he probably had his own 
reasons, and it was not for a stranger to speak where he 
had remained silent. 

Alicia continued gently stroking her father’s brow, and 
Von Rothstein watched her admiringly. 

“ He knows your touch,” he said at last. 

She nodded, but did not look at him. All her atten- 
tion was concentrated on her patient. 

A shadow crossed the doorway and the man who had 
scornfully turned over the body of Luiz with his foot, 
and then with a word dismembered him, stood in the 
opening and looked in upon them curiously. 

He said a word to Von Rothstein and turned abruptly 
and left the hut. The other rose and followed him, and 
Alix heard them in conversation outside. 

The native was evidently stating some proposition. 
Von Rothstein was arguing against it, emphatically, and 
at last heatedly. It was in a dialect strange to Alix, 


24 


A DEATH-TRAP. 


however, though an occasional word sounded like the 
lingoageral which she had been in the habit of using 
with the natives. They were, however, too far away 
for her to follow connectedly and she could not know 
how nearly it concerned herself and her father. 

In effect the chief was representing to Von Rothstein 
that it was as much as his place was worth to suffer these 
strangers to live. No stranger lived in the land of the 
Paorongs. 

“ Save myself,” said Von Rothstein. 

“ Save only yourself,” said the chief, “ and you only 
because you are my other self. But for you another 
would rule here. You gave me life, therefore I live 
and you live.” 

“ And these two, they are of my house, though the 
girl knows it not. When the father awakes, he -will know 
it. If they do not live, neither do I.” 

The chief’s brows knitted in perplexity. He felt him- 
self between the devil and the deep sea. His word was 
pledged to Von Rothstein — the rule of his tribe was 
inexorable. 

“ I will represent it to the rest, but — you know them.” 

“ Yes, I know them, they are devils. See, Ruca — if a 
single hair of that girl’s head is harmed I will sweep you 
and your tribe off the face of the earth.” 

The chief pondered the situation. He had no desire 
to injure the girl. All he wanted was to be left in peace 
and position. He could not run counter to the will of 
his people. He had no wish to be swept off the face of 
the earth. 

At last he said hurriedly in a whisper, 

“ Yonder are their canoes, and all their things are 
there save what sank. Get away to-night. The booms 
are up and there is no moon.” 

“ The man is unconscious.” 

“ Better so than dead. If he is here to-morrow he 
will be more unconscious still, and maybe you and I also. 
I will call the men to council to-night. My daughter 
Ruelle shall be on guard. She will die, but better her 
than you.’* 

“ will take her with us.” 


FLIGHT. 


25 

“ Good,’* nodded the chief. “ Better with you than 
with death.” And after a pause he added, “ As soon as 
It IS dark then. We shall meet no more. If you return 
you die. Farewell, my brother.” 

“ Farewell! I shall not return.” 

“ Is this white girl then so much to you ?” said the 
chief, lingering. 

“ Yes.” 


CHAPTER IV. 

FLIGHT. 

When the night had shut down, dark and mysterious 
in those forest depths, the tribesmen gathered in council 
in the midst of the village. A couple of shadows stole 
into the hut where Alix still sat by her father’s side. 
He had not recovered consciousness, though several 
times he had seemed just on the point of coming to. It 
seemed to Alix that the injury to his head must be more 
serious than they imagined. 

Von Rothstein bent over her and whispered, 

“ We must go. It is our only chance and time presses. 
To stay means death. If we are discovered it means 
death.” 

“ How go ?” 

“ The canoes are ready. We must carry him.” 

He took the unconscious man under the arms, and the 
Indian girl Ruelle took him by the knees, and silently 
and swiftly they carried him to the river bank. They 
passed between two of the great wooden crosses and a 
horrible smell enveloped them and turned Alix sick and 
faint. She dared not ask what it meant, and it was too 
dark for her to see. Afterwards she learned that these 
were used for the exposure of the headless bodies of 
such unfortunates as succeeded in passing within the 
borders of the land of the Paorongs. 

They laid Roustaine in the bottom of the first canoe 
^nd Von Rothstein ran it noiselessly into the water. 


FLIGHT. 


Ruelle did the same with the other boat. Von Rothstein 
stepped into the first and the two girls into the second. 

“ Follow close,” he whispered, and shoved off into the 
stream, and the girls did the same. 

For a whole hour they drifted swiftly and in silence 
down the dark river aisle between its borderings of solid, 
black forest-growth. Then Von Rothstein dipped his 
paddle and the canoes doubled their speed and bore 
them lightly and swiftly towards the possibilities of 
life. 

All through the night they paddled without uttering 
a word, through the dimness of the dawn, and until the 
sun topped the trees and beat down into the gulley of 
the river. 

Von Rothstein reckoned they had made a good forty 
miles. He had no great fears of pursuit, for the Pao- 
rongs as a rule kept strictly within their own boundaries. 
Their hand was against every man’s, with the natural 
consequences. Their neighbours slew them at sight 
whenever chance offered. 

The girls’ arms were trembling with the unaccustomed 
strain when at last Von Rothstein turned the nose of his 
canoe in towards the bank, and drifted along in search 
of a possible landing-place. 

None offered. The bank was an almost impenetrable 
thicket, with the water swirling and hissing through its 
feet, a veritable chevaux-de-frise^ warning off intruders 
from the hinterland. 

At last in desperation he chose the thinnest part of the 
thicket and drove his boat’s nose into it, scrambled 
ashore on to the trembling platform of reeds and rushes 
and matted roots, and dragged the canoe bodily in after 
him. The girls followed and with his assistance hauled 
in their craft likewise, and he and Ruelle craftily re- 
arranged the veiling vines of the thicket to show no trace 
of their entrance. 

To Alix, unversed in the ways of life in these regions, 
it seemed quite unnecessary precaution. But they had 
barely got out their meagre ration of dried peccary meat 
and were sitting on their heels munching it with the en- 
joyment of keen hunger in spite of its coarseness and it^ 


FLIGHT. 27 

dryness and its smokiness, when Ruelle laid a hand on 
Von Rothstein’s arm and raised the other in warning. 

In two minutes the others heard the rapid beat of 
paddles which her better-tuned ear had already caught, 
and shrinking within themselves, and scarce daring to 
breathe, they peered through the lacing stems and 
branches and saw a long canoe with six sturdy rowers 
swinging to the stroke, sweep past down the river. 

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven men they counted, 
and Ruca the chief, and Alix shuddered to think what 
would have been happening if Von Rothstein’s precau- 
tions had not been taken. 

Going on was out of question. They lay there all day 
awaiting the event, whatever it might be, and in the 
evening just before sundown they heard the slow la- 
boured beat of the paddles again as the canoe came toil- 
ing back upstream against the almost impossible cur- 
rent. 

They watched eagerly. At last the canoe came in 
sight, and Ruelle’s hand tightened convulsively on Von 
Rothstein’s arm again. It contained only the six rowers 
and the chief Ruca. Where were the others? Gone 
home by land to lighten the boat, or — left down stream 
to watch patiently in case they had overrun the fugi- 
tives? 

The latter to a certainty almost, and the thought of it 
ridged up Von Rothstein’s brow into deep furrows. He 
knew only too well the implacable nature of these Ish- 
maelites. It was their boast that the land of the Pao- 
rongs was inviolate, that no stranger ever left it except 
piecemeal, head first and body later. 

He would have felt better if he could have walked 
about and tramped out a solution of the difficulty, but he 
had no room to do more than sit on his heels and work 
brain and brows. 

They were in a cleft stick, and he knew it. Behind 
them lay death, sharp and sure. Before them lay death 
swift and sudden and unexpected, unless they could 
manage to outwit the keen-eyed watchers on either bank. 
And their present position was tenable, if they chose to 
hold it, just so long as their scanty supply of dry meat 


28 


FLIGHT. 


held out. Von Rothstein’s brows knitted and his teeth 
ground savagely over the problem. 

At last he hit upon a scheme and talked it over rapidly 
with the girl Ruelle. She acquiesced and rose with alacrity 
and began gathering great bunches of rushes and dry 
grass. Von Rothstein meanwhile was transferring all 
their remaining valuables from the girls’ canoe to his 
own and disposing them there to the best advantage. 
Roustaine still lay stark and still with no other sign of 
life in him than the slow regular rise and fall of the chest 
in breathing. Von Rothstein confessed to himself that 
more had happened there than he had had any idea of, 
but those other matters pressed, and the wounded man 
must wait, though, without surgical skill to relieve the 
injured brain, it seemed more than likely that he waited 
simply for death. 

Ruelle ni mbly swarmed the bare trunk of a tree and 
cut from its feathery upper branches a number of the 
long trailing creepers which came flopping down on the 
others like wounded snakes. A number of these she 
twisted into a length of rope, while Von Rothstein built 
up in the girls’ canoe with the rushes and grasses tied 
with bits of creeper three dummy figures, which he fixed 
firmly in their places. 

Then having made another frugal meal, just as the 
night shadows were creeping out of the forest and crowd- 
ing down into the river-bed, he cleared a way with his 
machete through the thicket, and hauled the boat with 
the dummy figures into the water. The two girls piished 
the other boat through, and Von Rothstein, attaching the 
the first boat to their own by a fifty foot rope of twisted 
creeper, started it on its journey, and lying in the bows 
of his own boat, revolver in one hand, and the other 
hand on the pulse of the tow-rope, the two boats drifted 
noiselessly down to whatever might be awaiting them 
below. 

Hour after hour they drifted, with the mewing and 
growling of the forest beasts echoing out of the shadows 
on either side, till Alix began to hope that, after all, their 
precautions had been unnecessary, and that the other 
men might have gone home by some other route, 


FLIGHT. 


29 

It was at the very deadest and darkest of the night, 
just before the dawn, when even the forest sounds Vvere 
mostly hushed, that the crisis came. 

Von Rothstein lying with eyes and ears straining ahead 
into the gloom till they almost cracked, suddenly felt the 
rope slacken under his hand, which meant that the 
pioneer canoe had encountered some obstruction. In- 
stantly almost it seemed to him that above the hiss and 
ripple of the water in the reeds he heard other sounds 
ahead. They might be the sounds of men plunging into 
the river. They might be the sounds of swimmers. 
They might be only the welling of the stream against 
some prostrate tree. 

He watched eagerly and the girls craned forward to 
see what was happening. Their own boat drifted on. 
The pioneer was close ahead, almost alongside, when — 
ghostly dim through the gloom they saw it — there rose 
from the water on each side of it a dark figure which 
gently grasped the gunwale, drew itself up, bent over 
into the boat, and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed into the 
silent figures of rushes and grass. While the slayers 
were still in their first surprise at the quiescence of their- 
victims, Von Rothstein’s boat drifted silently alongside. 
Two sharp reports, and two brown bodies hung limp 
over the side of the other canoe for a moment, then 
flopped over the side and rolled over and over down the 
stream. 

As Von Rothstein had half expected, they had rigged 
a rope of creepers across the river just above the surface. 
They had bound it round their bodies so that nothing 
could possibly pass without alarming them, and when 
the first canoe touched the rope they slipped into the 
water with their knives, which, but for the precautions 
taken would have found lodgment in the bodies of the 
travellers. 

The remaining three members of the pursuit made no 
sign. They had probably gone further down the river, 
so that in case the fugitives escaped ambush number one, 
further traps might be ready for them, and it v^as evi- 
dent that their precautions must not be relaxed for a 
single minute. The prospect was not encouTaging, but 


PURSUIT. 


30 

it was the only prospect, and the only possible way of 
escape was down the river, and so they started the pio- 
neer boat and its crew on its travels again and drifted on 
in the rear of it as before. 


CHAPTER V. 

PURSUIT. 

The night passed without further incident, and at 
dawn they chose another hiding-place, and dragged the 
boats inside the thicket after them, and ate and lay down 
to rest with the uncomfortable feeling that for anything 
they knew their enemies might be crouching within 
sight and hearing of them. 

And all the while Charles Roustaine lay all uncon- 
scious of what was passing around him and of what they 
did with him. They moistened his lips now and then 
with a cordial from Von Rothstein’s flask, but beyond 
this and the constant renewal of the damp bandages 
round his head they could do little, and Alix’s heart was 
sad with forebodings. For this long period of blank 
lethargy pointed without doubt to much graver injuries 
than they had imagined. 

Von Rothstein quietly and unostentatiously did all in 
his power for her comfort. He ministered to her in a 
hundred little ways, and Alix, fully assured by his ready 
assumption of the burden of their escape at the risk of 
his own life, of his genuineness and devotion, was very 
grateful to him, and her heart inclined towards him, and 
she trusted him fully and completely. 

There was little speech among them at this time. 
Their burden was too heavy. They carried their lives 
in their hands, and the slightest sound might betray 
them into the hands of their pursuers. 

So, silent save for gp occasional wbisper^ they at^ and 


PURSUIT. 


31 


watched and slept by turns, till night fell once more, and 
they stole out of their hiding-place and launched out 
again on the waters of the Paranon. 

Alix’s heart grew lighter as the hours followed one 
another without incident, and each moment increased 
the distance between themselves and the land of the 
Paorongs. But the heart of Ruelle the Indian maiden 
was heavy within her and full of forebodings. Her 
comely brown face grew sharp and pinched with anxiety 
as the time passed and the remaining avengers made no 
sign. 

“ They will never give up the chase,” she said gloomily, 
“ while life lasts to them or to us. I know my people. 
It is their boast that no one lives outside Paorong who 
is able to tell what it is like, for no stranger ever yet left 
it alive. And then,” she added musingly, “ there is 
Paolo.” 

“ Who is Paolo ?” asked Alix, in her smattering of the 
Tupi Guarani tongue which Ruelle could also under- 
stand. 

“ He was to marry me,” she said simply. 

“ Oh, poor child, what trouble we have brought upon 
you! We have spoiled your life.” 

“ No,” said Ruelle. “ I did not like him. That is why 
I was glad to come. But he went down the river with 
the others in the boat, and he is waiting down there for 
me and he will kill me.” 

“ Perhaps he was one of the two we killed last night.” 

“ No, he is a bigger man than either of them. He is 
the biggest man in all Paorong and the worst. I am 
glad to get away from him.” 

And Ruelle sat in the bows of the canoe watching with 
the keen eyes of her race for the first sign of the next 
attempt on them, which she knew would be made sooner 
or later. 

The night, however, passed without incident or attack, 
and even Von Rothstein’s spirits began to rise and his 
vigilance to relax. Ruelle alone remained burdened and 
hopeless, and maintained her look-out with an anxiety 
for which the others began to beli^VQ there w^s no 
ground beyond her own fear^, 


32 


PURSUIT. 


“ They have separated,” said Von Rothstein. “ Those 
two kept to the river, the others tried the woods for us, 
and not finding any traceSshave gone back home again.” 

“ No,” said Ruelle, “ they are waiting for us down 
below, and this time we shall not escape.” 

On the third day Charles Roustaine came to himself. 
As Alix was gently renewing the wet cloths on his head, 
his hand beat feebly, and looking into his eyes she saw 
that they were open and had soul in them. She bent 
and kissed him with a fervent “ Thank God !” and they 
fed him with tiny bits of dried meat, and gave him drink 
from Von.Rothstein’s flask. 

It took some time to explain the situation to him, for 
his brain was still in a tangle. The last thing he remem- 
bered was the sudden leap of his boat as it struck the 
boom three nights before. Everything since had been 
blank. His eye wandered in wonder from Ruelle to 
Von Rothstein, and rested long and often on the latter 
in thoughtful and painfully puzzled fashion. 

Von Rothstein noticed this and said to him at length, 

“ Do not try your brain too much. I am Karl von 
Rothstein. We will talk about it later.” 

“ Ah !” said Roustaine, sinking back with a satisfied 
sigh, “ I understand — I thought — I knew.” 

Alix heard what passed and it puzzled her greatly. 
Her father knew this man. Von Rothstein had said at 
their first meeting that he knew her father or knew of 
him. Was it possible then that they were actually 
acquainted ? That would be good, for Von Rothstein’s 
thoughtful care of her, his anticipation of her every 
want, and his generous devotion to herself and her 
father, had wrought favourably in her towards him. She 
had come to rely upon him, and to trust him as a friend, 
and her heart was glad to think that there was already 
some bond of knowledge and friendship between the 
two men. 

While Von Rothstein was busy with preparations for 
departure at dusk that night, Alix was tending her 
father, when he asked her suddenly, 

“ Do you know who he is ?” 

“No, father,” 


PURSUIT. 33 

That is like him. He is your cousin Karl — of the 
elder branch. — You can trust him.” 

“ I am glad,” said Alix. “ I like him. He has risked 
his life for us.” 

“ I will tell you all later when I am stronger,” said her 
father, and then Von Rothstein came back to tell them 
it was time to start, and Alix looked upon him with a 
new light in her eyes. 

All that night also they swept along unmolested, 
camped the next day without interruption, and resumed 
their journey when dusk fell, in fairly hopeful spirits. 

Von Rothstein, indeed, felt so satisfied in his own 
mind after these two days of undisturbed security that 
the pursuit was given up, that he allowed the strenuity 
of his vigilance to relax still more. 

Not so Ruelle, however. He knew her people well, 
she still better, and not for one instant did she believe 
that anything short of death would satisfy their outraged 
feelings. Not for one instant did her keen-eyed, ear- 
strained suspicion fail in its surveillance of the banks 
and the stream ahead. 

“ They have certainly gone back, Ruelle,” said Von 
Rothstein. “ We may as well journey by day now.” 

“ No, padrone, they are waiting for us.” 

Von Rothstein shrugged his shoulders. If she pre- 
ferred worrying herself, that was her affair. So the 
spirits of the rest rose, but she remained ever anxious 
and suspicious. 

Roustaine began to pick up a little strength, though 
still dazed and weak in the head, and Alix tended him 
with loving and constant care. 

But Ruelle was right, and her instinct bore good fruit. 
The fifth night of their flight they had been drifting 
silently along as usual, with the pioneer boat in front, 
when, just at the turn of the night as before, Ruelle’s 
warning hiss set them suddenly gn guard, too late, how- 
ever, to avert the catastrophe. Four strong brown 
hands rose suddenly and silently out of the dark water, 
hooked on to one side of the canoe, and in a moment 
they were all struggling in the river. It was smartly 


PURSUIT. 


34 

done, and might have been as disastrous in effect as lii 
intention. 

When Von Rothstein recovered himself from the un- 
pected immersion, his first instinct was towards Alix. 
He had no more than time for a glance, but it showed 
him she was all right. With one hand grasping the sick 
man, she was ploughing gallantly towards the bank. A 
warning cry from the Indian girl brought him round 
just in time. Then she breasted past him to join Alix 
and assist her with her burden. 

The two Indians had gone round with the canoe and 
had come up on the other side. Now they came thrash- 
ing round either end of it, knife in mouth, and eyes 
aflame with the lust of death. But Von Rothstein had 
looked death in the face too often to be daunted by it 
now. For a man who had faced the iron hail of Sadowa 
and Konigratz, a couple of knife-armed savages in a 
South American river presented no extraordinary emo- 
tions. He faced them, treading the water, and awaited 
the assault, whereby he had an advantage over their 
more extended formation. 

They came boldly at him, and as they drew near 
plucked their knives from their frothing mouths and 
hefted them ready for use. For a moment he hesitated 
at using his revolver on them, but it was life and death 
and no time to lose. They took him on opposite sides 
and came boldly at him. He drew his revolver, and as 
his bullet crashed into the brain of his right hand assail- 
ant, the left hand man’s knife drove through his shield- 
ing arm in search of his heart. Before he could with- 
draw it. Von Rothstein cocked the revolver again with 
his thumb, for the water had clogged the action some- 
what, and fired again full into his face, and the two 
brown bodies went rolling down the stream within a 
dozen yards of one another. 

The current had carried the fight some distance from 
the place where the girls had struggled ashore with the 
sick man, and Von Rothstein’s first thought was to get 
back to them. 

He set his teeth tight and drew the knife out of his 
arm. It was like the searing of white-hot iron. Then 


I'URSUIT. 


35 

lie tiifiied to head iipstreain and found the two canoes 
drifting down upon him and almost within arm’s length, 
the sunken one acting as a drag upon the other. He 
threw his whole arm over the gunwale of the first boat 
with a gasp of relief, and hung there to recover his 
wind. Then, still hanging to the gunwale, he struck 
out vigorously with his feet, and succeeded in edging 
the boat bit by bit towards the thicket of roots and 
branches which guarded the river bank. He drifted 
slowly along till he came to an opening made by a fallen 
tree, whose trunk and top branches lay in the river and 
formed a tiny backwater. Here he came to an anchor. 
He worked his legs round the tree trunk and hung on to 
his canoe like grim death till the sunken boat slowly 
rounded in to the side, and as the strain slackened he 
was able to push his own craft in between tree-trunk 
and shore, with the lariat taut over the bole of the tree. 

He scrambled into the boat with pain and difficulty 
and lay there exhausted and bleeding. 

As soon as his strength returned, he sat up and looked 
about him. Then he leaned over, and inch by inch 
drew the sunken canoe up to the tree and lashed the 
rope tight round the stub of a branch. He cut off all 
the rope he could spare and twisted it tight round and 
round his left arm to stop the bleeding. The dummy 
figures which had sat mute spectators of this struggle of 
two against one and one with himself, he bundled over- 
board and then bent his mind to the problem of getting , 
back to the girls, up-stream, with one arm and no pad- 
dle, for paddles and everything else had gone in the 
over-turn. 

He looked over the side with a vague idea of punting. 
Poles he could procure in plenty from the branches of 
the fallen tree, but a glance showed him there was no 
bottom below the treacherous undercut bank save the 
precarious tangle of roots. 

His wanderings, however, had made him sharp-witted 
and resourceful. Just beneath him in the water was a 
forked branch of the tree, jutting out in two long arms 
which met at an acute angle about four feet from the 


PURSUIT. 


36 

trunk. This suggested an idea, and he acted on it at 
once. 

Leaning over the side, he whittled away at the branch 
just above the fork with the Indian’s knife, to whose 
quality his arm bore sharp witness. A quarter of an 
hour’s work separated it from the trunk and left the two 
long forking branches in his hand. He hauled one of 
them up on to the gunwale and whittled away again till 
the branch fell apart, leaving him now with a rude im- 
plement something like a one-sided pick-axe, wdth a 
pick one foot long and an eight-foot handle. This he 
trimmed to his hand and then lay back for a rest. 

Then to work again, and he began to claw his way 
slowly upstream. He knelt in the bows and dung out 
his crook to the full stretch of his arm, brought it crash- 
ing into the thicket till it gripped, then hauled the canoe 
bodily along, and unhooked it for another fling. And so 
bit by bit, with cracking muscles and grinding teeth, he 
worked his w’ay along, hoping each cast might bring him 
to the desired haven. 

It was long after sun-up, hov/ever, when at last the 
nose of the canoe crept slowly round the gap in the 
thicket which the girls had made in hauling the sick man 
ashore. 

An exclamation of joy caught his ear. Ruelle’s bright 
eyes appeared through the undergro-wth, and in a mo- 
ment AHx’s face appeared alongside, glowing with the 
gladness of reunion. 

“ We thought you dead,” she said, and there was a 
break in her voice which did not fail to strike Von Roth- 
stein’s ear. “ And when we heard you, we feared it was 
the Indians returning in search of us. Oh, I am glad 
and thankful.” 

“ Not gladder than I am,” said Von Rothstein. “ Hov^r 
is 5mur father?” 

“The worse of it, I fear. But your arm ? You are 
wounded. Let me see to it.” 

“One of their knives went through it,” he said, “ and 
it bled a good deal.” 

He crawled ashore and the girls drew the canoe in 
among the bushes. 


PURSUIT. 


37 

Roustaine was lying on his back in a state of semi- 
consciousness. He had not spoken nor moved a finger 
since they got him ashore. 

Ruelle, at the sight of Von Rothstein’s wound, had 
stolen off into the woods, worming her way through the 
thickets and round the bare tree-trunks at cost of skin 
and clothing, picking her steps cautiously, and treading 
gingerly by reason of the precariousness of the footing. 
She returned presently with a handful of fruits and nuts 
and some soft green leaves, which she rolled between her 
palms to a pulp. This she dipped in the water and 
bound on to the wounded arm with strips torn from her 
own scanty garments. The effect was instantaneously 
soothing and permanently curative. On the fruit and 
nuts they made a slender meal, but for the time at all 
events, it stayed their hunger. 

It was while the Indian girl’s slim brown fingers were 
fluttering dexterously about Von Rothstein’s extended 
arm that Alix noticed for the first time a curious point 
of similarity between the brown hand and the white. 
From both the top half of the little finger of the left hand 
was a- missing. It struck her as a curious coincidence, 
and she voiced her surprise. 

“ How odd that you two should both have lost the 
same finger.” 

Von Rothstein laughed and said : 

“ Not so odd as it looks. It hurts less to take it off 
when you are a baby, doesn’t it, Ruelle?” 

“ I do not remember,” said the girl. 

“ I do,” said Von Rothstein, “ and I can tell you it 
hurts a good deal when you’re grown up. That is the 
distinctive mark of the Paorongs,” he said to Alix. “ I 
was so fortunate as to save the life of Ruelle’s father, the 
chief Ruca, at the risk of my own. As the only means 
of saving my life he insisted on my admission to the 
tribe, and I had to comply with the custom. Every 
Paorong is wanting the top half of the little finger of 
the left hand.” 

“ What a barbarous idea!” 

“ It is quaint, isn’t it? They are curious people, and 


PURSUIT. 


3S 

madly jealous of outsiders. Hence the pursuit we are 
suffering from now. Are we safe yet, Ruelle?” 

“ No,” she said gloomily. “ There is still Paolo. He 
is waiting for us down below.” 

Von Rothstein doubted it, but the matter was not 
worth argument, and he was glad to rest, for his wound 
had bled freely and at the moment he did not feel in 
good fighting condition. 

As he lay back pressing the bandages tighter to his 
wounded arm with his right hand, to her great surprise 
Alix noticed that part of the little finger of that hand 
was also a- missing. She glanced at the Indian girl’s 
right hand, but it was intact. 

“ What happened to your other hand!” she asked. 

“ That bit,” he said, looking thoughtfully at the part 
th^t was left, “ is in France; I left it in the vineyard at 
Worth. A French bullet took it off. I was too busy to 
look for it. Do you know, I believe the fact that it was 
missing predisposed Ruelle ’s friends in my favor when 
first we met. I believe they thought I was some kind of 
distant connection. If it had only been the left finger 
the Frenchman took off, it would have been all right.” 

They lay low in the thicket all that day, and Ruelle 
constructed a couple of rough paddles out of Von Roth- 
Btein’s crutch-stick with small cross-pieces bound on one 
by one to form the blade. 

As night drew down, the forlorn little company em- 
barked once more, and floated down to the tree where 
the other canoe was tied, attached it once more to their 
own, and started on another night voyage. 

Hour after hour they swept along through the dark 
sinuosities of the river, audit seemed as though the night 
would pass without incident, when, just after midnight. 
Von Rothstein was roused from a half-doze as he lay in 
the stern, by the troubled motion of the boat, and became 
aware from the swifter rush and the louder swirl and 
hiss of the waters through the thickets on the bank that 
the river had narrowed, while the sudden blotting-out of 
sky and stars told him that the arching trees met over- 
head and formed a tunnel over the stream. 

There came a sudden sharp hiss from Ruelle in the 


ruRsuir. 


39 

bows, and then without the slightest warning, as Von 
Rothstein’s eyes ranged keenly round through the sur- 
rounding darkness, a heavy body dropped lightly from 
the canopy above and alighted in the boat beside them. 
It held a knife in each hand, and in an instant the right 
hand knife was buried in the round bronze pillar of the 
Indian girl’s throat. 

With a choking sob Ruelle flung up her arms and 
dropped back into the water. 

With a flerce laugh of triumph the savage turned on 
the others, stumbling over the sick man, and striking 
fiercely at all and sundry. The canoe rocked so that 
foot-hold was impossible. Von Rothstein dashed in at 
him, caught him with his undamaged fist under the chin 
and hurled him into the water, still striking wildly and 
blindly with his knife, and as he rose and grasped th^ 
side with the intention of hauling himself in to renew 
the fight, the last barrel of Von Rothstein’s revolver 
spoke, and the Indian dropped back and sank. 

That is the last of them,” panted Von Rothstein, as 
he gathered himself up from the bottom of the canoe. 
“ Now we are free.” 

“ And poor Ruelle ” said Alix. 

“ Ay, poor girl, she was right after all.” 

But they had not time then to bemoan her loss, for, 
either as a result of Paolo’s sudden drop into the canoe, 
or from a rip of the blind knife as he went overboard, 
their frail craft was leaking badly. The water was al- 
ready washing round the sick man. It was a question 
of minutes. 

“Quick!” cried Von Rothstein to Alix, “into the 
other boat. Now, hold them close. Now, help!” as he 
drew the unconscious man up to the gunwale, then 
climbed over into the whole boat, and dragged him in 
after him, just as the other boat gave a sickly wobble 
and went under. 


40 


SAFETY AND DEFEAT. 


CHAPTER VI. 

SAFETY AND DEFEAT. 

That was the last of the pursuit. The river broad- 
ened and the current slackened, and at noon next day 
they floated out on to a wide expansion that was almost 
a lake. 

“ Now we are all right,” said Von Rothstein briskly. 
“ There is a village along here. I remember it when I 
passed nine months ago. The people here hate the Pao- 
rongs like poison. The fact that we have been there 
and are still alive will ensure us welcome, if we can make 
them believe it.” 

Paddling as well as they were able in their weak and 
wounded condition, in the direction in which Von Roth- 
stein believed the village to lie, a couple of hours raised 
the roofs on the flat bank of the lake, and they drew 
slowly in towards the landing-place, where a number of 
the natives lay about watching them with phlegmatic 
curiosity. 

Von Rothstein beached the boat and the natives 
watched him without offering any assistance. He walked 
up to a row of them lying under the projecting eaves of 
the nearest hut. 

“ Where is your head man ?” he asked in the Tupi 
Guarani. 

The man addressed indicated a heap of blankets 
bunched up in front of one of the huts, and when Von 
Rothstein a]3proached it, a wizened old black face 
ringed with white hair and white beard protruded itself 
cautiously like the head of a tortoise. 

“ We are from the land of the Paorongs,” said Von 
Rothstein. 

There was a slight movement of interest in the crowd, 
but the old man shook his head sceptically. 

“ No man returns alive from the land of the Pao- 
rongs,” he said sententiously. 


SAFETY AND DEFEAT. 4I 

“ We are from the land of the Paorongs,” said Von 
Rothstein, “ and we have returned alive.” 

The old man shook his head, as one who had heard 
many stories in his lifetime and was not to be taken in. 

“ Did I not stop three nights with you when I went 
up the river, now nearly a year ago ?” said Von Roth- 
stein. “ That blanket you are wearing is the one I gave 
you.” 

“ It is,” said the ancient, “ but you have not been to 
the land of the Paorongs, and come back alive. No man 
ever came back alive from the land of the Paorongs.” 

Von Rothstein shrugged his shoulders and muttered 
in German, 

“ You are an old fool.” 

To his astonishment the old man said quietly in his 
own tongue, 

“ No, I am not a fool, but then neither am I a liar.” 

Von Rothstein laughed out loud at the unexpected 
retort. 

“ How came you to understand my tongue ?” he asked 
in German, but the old man only shook his head, and 
when the question was repeated in his own dialect he 
said, 

“ There is a trader down yonder who uses that word 
much, therefore I know it.” 

“ How far away does he live ?” 

“ Eight days’ journey down the stream, twelve days’ 
back.” 

“ When we have rested sufficiently, we will journey to 
his place.” 

But for two of them that journey was never to be taken, 
and yet two of them went. You will see. 

While he was still talking to the old chief, one of the 
surrounding loafers growled out a remark which Von 
Rothstein did not catch. The old man, however, re- 
garded him with renewed interest and asked abruptly, 

“ When you were with us before you had nine fingers 
and half a finger, now you have but eight fingers and 
two half fingers. Why ?” 

“ The other half remains in the laud of the Paorongs,” 
Why r 


42 


SAFETY AND DEFEAT. 


Von Rothstein explained briefly, and the old man 
asked, 

“ You are then a Paorong ?'* 

“ I was, but I escaped in order to assist my friends to 
escape. That is six days ago. Since then I have killed 
five of the Paorongs who tried to stop us.” 

“You are welcome,” said the old man. “ Would that 
you had killed them all.” 

Alix had been sitting in the boat anxiously watching 
while this colloquy took place. Von Rothstein now went 
down to her and assisted her ashore. He essayed to lift 
the unconscious Roustaine out of the boat, but found 
him too heavy to handle alone. He called to one of the 
natives, who slouched lazily down to his assistance, and 
between them they carried the sick man up the beach to 
an empty hut, and laid him down on the floor, and Von 
Rothstein set himself to procuring the food and drink 
they were so sadly in need of. He bustled about and 
infused more activity into that village than it had known 
since the last time he was there, greatly to the old chief’s 
amusement. 

“ You ought to be chief here,” he said. “ You make 
them do more than ever I could, but they would murder 
you in three days if it went on. They are not used to 
work so hard.” 

In the peaceful, lotus-eating life of the Indian village, 
with plenty to eat and no battles to fight, Alix rapidly 
recovered strength. But, now that her heart was no 
longer on the rack of that instant struggle with death, it 
had leisure to concentrate itself on her father’s condition, 
and her anguish was great thereat, for, disguise his fears 
as he might. Von Rothstein’s anxiety could not be fully 
concealed and the girl knew this state of lethargy could 
not continue, that before long there must be an awaken- 
ing, either to life or to death, and everything pointed to 
the latter. 

All they could do for him they did, and they enlisted 
on his behalf all the knowledge possessed by all the wise 
men of this branch of the old Botocudos, but after trying 
their simple remedies without avail, they gave up the 
caSQ as a bad job, and with one accord said that th^ rnau 


SAFETY AND DEFEAT. 


43 


must die, and Von Rothstein himself feared it must come 
to that. There was evidently serious injury to the brain, 
and nothing but a skilful and delicate operation, utterly 
impossible of accomplishment in that far-away spot, could 
cure it. 

They nursed him with tenderest care and ceaseless at- 
tention, and he seemed to suffer little, if at all. That 
was their only consolation in that dreadful state of living 
death, slipping gradually away into the actuality. 

To her own future and to the difference her father’s 
death must make to her, Alix never gave a thought. 
Her heart was wrapped up in him, and all else was but 
as dust of the balances. 

She never left his side for more than a few moments, 
and if the most assiduous care and attention could loosen 
the grip of death when man’s time has come, assuredly 
this man’s life had been saved; but while these can do 
much, they cannot do all. Charles Roustaine’s time was 
up, and there was no gainsaying the call. 

On the sixth day after their arrival in the village, be- 
ing the twelfth day after their escape, and the fourteenth 
of his sickness, Roustaine suddenly called the attention 
of his watchers by a feeble beating of his hand on the 
blanket which lay over him. 

He was very weak, for during many days he had taken 
no nourishment save the cordials they had administered 
drop by drop. 

His tired sunken eyes had a gleam of soul in them , 
once more — for the last time. It was the final flicker of 
the candle and the end was very near. 

He looked at them questioningly. Alix took his hand 
in both hers and stroked it gently, but it lay lax and pas- 
sive. He was too feeble to press hers in return. 

“ Father,” she said, “ do you know me ?” 

“ Surely, child,” he whispered, and after a time during 
which his eyes were fixed on Von Rothstein in the same 
puzzled questioning as when first he saw him, he asked, 

“ How comes he here ?” 

“ He saved our lives, father, at risk of his own.” 

“ Ah!” murmqred 


44 


THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


ened hungrily on his kinsman, and presently he addressed 
him direct. 

“ You must answer for her.” 

“ As for my own life,” said Von Rothstein, in a deep, 
low voice. 

Roustaine lay back with a satisfied face. His eyes 
wandered from one to the other of them and settled again 
questioningly on Von Rothstein. His confused brain 
was groping after a thread and — suddenly found it. 

“ Ah!” he said, “ the Princess — Sophie — ?” 

And with a moment’s hesitation and an almost imper- 
ceptible tightening of the jaw Von Rothstein answered, 

“ She is dead.” 

Roustaine lay quietly looking at them, and presently, 
without other sign, Alix felt the life ebb out of the lax 
fingers so that they lay limp in her hand, and looking up 
at him, she saw that the end had come. 

She fell on her knees by the side of the couch, and Von 
Rothstein, looking down upon her with eyes full of deep- 
est sympathy, and something deeper still, stole softly 
away and left her with her dead. 

He went off into the forest, and all day long he ram- 
bled about fighting a fierce fight with himself, as great a 
fight as man could well be flung into. 

And he came back beaten. 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 

When Von Rothstein returned from his bad time in 
the forest, he found Alix sitting at the door of the hut 
in which her father’s body lay. He came and stood 
before her and said, 

“ My whole heart is sore for you, cousin Alix. If I 
could have giveij my life for his, I wqu 14 ha,ve done it 
willingly,” 


THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


45 


She looked up at him with swimming eyes. 

“ You have done all you could. I am very grateful. 
It is very good to have you here.” 

She stretched out her hand to him, and he bent and 
kissed it, and stood by her for a time in silence. 

“ May I explain some matters to you?” he said. 
“ Your father would have done so, had the time been 
given him. Do you understand how we are related ? 
Do you know anything of your family ?” 

“ I knov/ nothing,” she answered, “ except that you 
are my cousin and I may trust you. My father told me 
so much, and said he would explain the rest.” 

“ Then I may do so ?” 

“ Yes, tell me.” 

“ We are of the same family, I of the elder branch, 
you and your father of the younger. He anglicized our 
name when he cast aside the family traditions and took to 
the wandering life which he loved. He hated the life 
of courts and battle-fields, and that is the life we Roth- 
steins are born into. My brother John, your cousin, 
the head of the house, is King John Xllth of Vascovia. 
Failing his heirs, I stand next in the succession, but in 
me, as in your father, and as I judge in yourself, the 
old wandering strain cropped up. It was not so easy 
for me to break away as for your father. I stcx)d it as 
long as I could, chafing against the burdens and re- 
straints like a wild beast in a cage, and then I threw it 
all over and came away to the wilderness, which for me 
holds more of the marrow of life than all the pomps of 
all the courts in the world.” 

“ I know just how you felt,” said Alix with sparkling 
eyes. 

“ Yes, you have felt it too, though perhaps not to the 
same extent. The life of a court might find attractions 
for you which you have never dreamed of.” 

He said it testing her, and watched her keenly. 

“ Never,” she said. “ This is the life that fills my 
soul, except for—” her hand rose and dropped again to 
her lap with a most pathetic gesture. 

“Ah, well!” he said, “ we have nothing to reproach 
ourselves with there. We did all we could, He lived 


THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


46 

the wanderer’s life, and he has died the wanderer’s death. 
My end will be the same, most likely. Yours too, per- 
haps. It is better to live in the wilderness and to die 
there, than to live and die in the cities.” 

“ Yes,” she said. 

And as he continued silent, she asked presently, 

“ And have I any other cousins besides yourself and 
your brother ?” 

“ Any ?” he said. “ Dozens, — full cousins and halves 
and quarters and eighths. We are related to half the 
reigning houses of Europe.” 

“ Gracious!” said Alix, somewhat startled. 

“ Yes, it is very trying. It is part of the burden of 
our birthright. To escape from it all and to become 
simply a man was the beginning of a new life, a verit- 
able escape from slavery,” and he heaved a great sight of 
relief. 

“ It was your likeness to my sister Alix,” he continued 
after a pause, — “ there is always an Alix in the family. 
There your father remembered the family traditions. — 
It was your likeness to Alix that opened my eyes the 
moment I saw you. I hardly needed to hear your name to 
know all about you, though it was very amazing to meet 
you in such a way and in such a place. Then,” he went 
on again, “ there is my brother Rolf. If anything hap- 
pens to John’s two boys, Rolf will take the crown, and 
nothing would suit him better. All those things appeal 
to Rolf and attract him just as much as they repel me. 
I have disappeared. Some time they will hear of my 
death, and my body will come back to Roystadt, and 
Rolf will step into my shoes. I shall have the peace. He 
will have all the burden of all the things his heart re- 
joices in. Each to his taste. My heart’s desire goes 
no further than this.” 

He was looking at her, but she was gazing out over 
the long, slow writhings and swirlings of the river, and 
did not know that his eyes were fixed upon her. 

“ Now,” he said, “ you understand matters generally. 
Your father left you to my care, and my life is at your 
service. Pray command me to the uttermost,” 


THE P^AMTLY CUPBOARD. 47 

“ You are very good,” she said slowly. “ I have not 
had time to think about myself yet. I must think.” 

He was silent for a time, musing within himself and 
weighing things in his heart and mind, for in all that he 
told her he had told her the truth and nothing but the 
truth, and yet not the whole truth. 

“ One other thing,” he said quietly at last. “ The 
Rothsteins must, if it be within the bounds of possibility, 
be laid to rest at Roystadt. I shall send your father’s 
body home.” 

“ Why ?” she said, startled. 

“ In the nature of things, it is well it should be so 
when it is possible. When my time comes, my body 
will go home too, and will be laid by the side of the rest 
of our race. We are not quite the same as other people. 
In life we may disappear to live our lives our own way, 
but, if our deaths are not recorded, complications may 
arise to the detriment of the state and the possible flaw- 
ing of the succession.” 

“ But my father was not in the succession.” 

“ In certain eventualities — by no means impossible 
ones — he would have been.” 

She seemed disturbed, and he added, 

“ It is only right. This part of the family burden you 
must accept. If you will bid him a last farewell to- 
night I will see to the rest. His body shall be embalmed 
and I will sent it home through that trader they spoke 
of down the river.” 

“ And I?” 

“ You will rest here till I return, and be recovering 
your health, and thinking out your future plans. The 
rest will do you good, and when I come back whatever 
you decide on shall be done.” 

She still hesitated. 

“ It is better so,” he said with a tone of finality. “ You 
will be perfectly safe here, and I will see that you have 
every attention.” 

She had no argument to advance against his wishes, 
and she had no desire to argue. He seemed to consider 
it right, that sufficed. 

That night shq took leave of hor father with a, simple. 


THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


48 


kiss on the forehead, and the next morning his body had 
been removed. 

Two days later Von Rothstein bade her farewell, and 
with four sturdy rowers and the canoe in which they had 
come from the land of the Paorongs, he disappeared 
down the long stretch of the river. 

He was gone the full twenty days and one which he 
spent in writing letters which for a consideration the 
trader undertook to forward to Roystadt, the capital of 
Vascovia, along with the body of Charles Roustaine. 

Von Rothstein went down the river with the repressed 
sober mien of a man who bore a heavy load of care and 
perplexity. He returned with the light-hearted eager- 
ness of one who has shed his burden, and put the past 
behind him for ever, and looks entirely to the future for 
life’s brightest and best. 

The days and the weeks passed slowly for Alix among 
the good-tempered, easy-going Botocudos, but from this 
restful time she drew great stores of strength and 
renewal. Her cheek took on the fine bloom of health, 
her eyes regained their fire and sparkle, her limbs re- 
newed their elasticity, her mind alone had not arranged 
itself. It was a chaos of perplexing thoughts and half- 
formed resolutions, of half- confessed hopes and fears. 

She had thought and thought and planned and re- 
solved, but no matter how wide her thoughts, how bold 
her plans, how strong her resolutions, there was one ever- 
recurring question which bounded them all and drew 
them all to a point. What was Karl von Rothstein, — 
her cousin Karl, — what was he going to do? And in 
those twenty-one days of utter loneliness she came first 
to miss him sorely, and then to long for his return. In 
short, she came to acknowledge to herself the great and 
simple fact that her future happiness depended very 
largely upon this new-found cousin whom her father had 
told her she might trust. 

The thought of returning to England and settling down 
to the ordinary humdrum of life was abhorrent to her. 
But what other course was open to her? She had but 
the slightest knowledge of her financial resources. Her 
father must have been well off. He had never lacked 


THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


49 

anything, nor denied her anything, and he had always 
spent his money with the free hand of one to whom 
money had come easily and was of little consequence, 
except as it enabled him to follow his own bent, and 
live his life in the way that pleased him best. 

She knew his bankers and lawyers, for she had been 
to both with him more than once when they were in 
London together, and in the water-proof belt which he 
always wore they had found drafts for a considerable 
amount on banks in Rio and Lima. 

From the monetary point of view her future no doubt 
was secure. But she counted money as lightly as her 
race had ever done, and looked upon it but as a means 
towards whatever end might be in view. 

She would prefer to continue her wandering life, if 
that were possible. Alone? — Not from choice, but yet 
sooner alone than not at all. 

The result of all her cogitations was that until she saw 
Von Rothstein again she could make up her mind only 
to this, that she had no desire to return home. Home? 
Where was her home? The world was her home, and 
her only desire at present was to roam it free and un- 
trammelled whithersoever her will might take her. 

She would wait then until Von Rothstein returned, 
and then decide on her future. She recognized all the 
delicacies of her position, but such as they were they had 
been brought about by circumstances over Vvhich she 
had had no control, and it was for Von Rothstein, into 
whose care her father had committed her, to find the 
way out. 

He would probably advise her to return to England, 
and offer to see her safely there. In that case would she 
go? She could not say. . She must wait and see. 

She felt the loss of her father greatly and mourned 
him deeply. The last six months had knitted their lives 
very closely together, and his going left a blank in her 
life which, she said to herself, nothing and no one could 
ever fill. 

It was five days since Von Rothstein left, and he would 
be away twenty, perhaps even twenty-one or twenty-two 
-—seventeen days of utter loneliness still before her, 


50 WOOED AND MARRIED AND — ? 

And then, — when he did return, what then? She could 
not say, but she found herself longing for the sight of 
him, and counting the days till he should be back. And 
the days passed slowly, so very, very slowly, slower than 
any days in her life had ever passed before. 

Occupation for her hands she found in truly feminine 
fashion in the devising and making of a dress out of a 
couple of blankets she obtained from the old chief, who 
was one of her greatest admirers. She laughed at her- 
self for the trouble she was taking, but all the same she 
worked away at the dress, and got it finished before Von 
Rothstein returned. It was a very wonderful affair — a 
very monument of difficulties ingeniously overcome, and 
into it was stitched many a strange thought and curious 
surmise, which, if they could only have become apparent, 
would have made it still more infinitely wonderful. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

WOOED AND MARRIED AND — ? 

On the twenty- first day she began to grow anxious. 
Could anything have happened to him? Such a journey 
contained all possible possibilities. Anything might 
have happened. Suppose the worst and he never re- 
turned, and she was left friendless and alone, to find her 
way back to civilization, or to remain here for the term 
of her natural life ! 

She kept an anxious look-out from the highest point 
of the bank, and at last on the afternoon of the twenty- 
second day there came the far-away rythmic beat of the 
paddles along the smooth surface of the river-lake, and 
then a speck which grew and grew, and she crept quietly 
away to her hut. 

Von Rothstein leaped ashore and looked eagerly 
around for the welcoming face towards which he had 


WOOED AND MARRIED AND— ? 


51 


been straining every nerve for the last twelve days. 
Could anything have happened to her? He walked 
quickly to the hut she occupied, and cried with a note of 
anxiety in his voice, 

“ Alix! Alix! where are you?” 

She came out and met him with outstretched hands. 
There was the old light in her eyes, and something more, 
but her face seemed cold to him. How should he know 
that if it had seemed less cold it must have seemed alto- 
gether too warm! She was holding herself in with a 
tight hand and her face was over grave for fear it might 
seem over joyful. 

“ I am very glad you are back,” she said. 

“ Is anything wrong?” he asked quickly. 

“ Nothing,” she answered. 

Over his pipe after supper he told her of his journey 
and of his good fortune in lighting on the trader who 
was starting down the river the very day after his ar- 
rival. And when he had made an end of his story he 
asked her, 

“ And you? What decision have you come to as to the 
future?” 

“ None,” she said. 

“ There are two ways home,” he said after a pause. 
“ Down stream, which I don’t recommend. It is mono- 
tonous and malarious more or less. The other way is 
back up one or other of the head waters, and over the 
mountains again to Lima or Quito.” 

He spoke as though it were inevitable that she should 
go home, and she waited silently. 

“ What will you do when you get home?” he asked. 

She shook her head gloomily. 

“ Have you any idea of your means?” he asked hesi- 
tatingly. “ As your guardian I should of course know, 
but I had no opportunity of discussing such things with 
your father.” 

“ I have no idea,” she said. “ I suppose he had money, 
and I know his bankers and his lawyers, but that is all.” 

He was determined to give her every chance, to urge 
this obvious course upon her, in fact, up to a certain 


WOOED AND MARRIED AND — ? 


5:^ 

point, to do his duty by her, and to leave the final deci- 
sion in her hands. 

“ You have friends,” he said, “ and will make 
many ” 

“ I have no friends,” she said, “ who weigh one grain 
against my desire to live my life according to the nature 
that is in me.” 

“ Still, have you any other course to suggest ?” 

Her dark cheeks flushed but she only shook her head 
again. 

He saw she would not voice her wishes. But they 
were making no progress. 

“ You do not like the thought of returning home,” he 
said at last. 

“ I do not,” she replied. 

A great silence fell between them, a silence big with 
fate, the turning-point of their two lives, great with after 
effects, far-reaching beyond conception, and involving 
the lives and fortunes of many 

But of these things they could not know, and they 
gave no thought to them. They were there, man and 
woman, and their thoughts were of one another, and of 
themselves, and of the relation in which they stood to 
one another, and of the mighty change in those rela- 
tions which a word said or left unsaid might bring 
about. 

He looked at her long and earnestly, still lingering on 
the threshold, though his mind had been made up many 
days. He had fought his fight in the woods that niglit, 
and had fought it over again as his canoe ran down the 
river. Perhaps the white angels and the black had a 
final wrestle for his soul in the silence that hung over 
them now. 

But, whatever else he was, he was a man of strong 
will. He had come to a decision with himself on this 
matter, and he had no intention of receding from it. 
His only doubt was as to the advisability of speaking 
now or waiting till he was surer of his grouni The 
glad light in her eyes as she came out to meet him urged 
him on. The coldness of her face bade him wait. 

He spoke at last, quietly, but in a voice so deep and 


WOOED AND MARRIED AND — ? 53 

full of emotion — all the springs of which she did not 
fathom for many a day — that her heart jumped and beat 
like a caged bird. 

“ You are of my own house/’ he said, “ and I credit 
you with knowledge and understanding beyond the or- 
dinary. You must feel as I do, that our position here is 
unusual and liable to misconstruction. My duty bids 
me see you home at once, but all my heart cries out for 
you to stop. Alix, will you stop and be my wife, and 
hand in hand we wdll roam the world together ? Life 
without you will be an empty, useless thing to me. 
Joined to yours, it wdll be richer and brighter than ever 
I have deserved or have dared to hope for.” 

“ You are sure it is not simply that your heart has 
taken pity on a forlorn and helpless maiden ?” But she 
knew as she looked into his eyes that it was not so. 

“ It is the forlorn maiden whom I am asking to take 
pity on me,” he said. “ She holds my life in her hands, 
and she knows it;” and as he looked into her eyes he 
knev/ that he had not asked in vain. 

“ I trust you,” she said simply, and put her hand into 
his. He kissed it reverently and then kissed her on the 
lips. 

And the white angels sighed and folded their wings, 
and swept silently and sorrowfully awa5^ 

They sat far into the night and talked long and ear- 
nestly until their future was all mapped out, so far as 
they could see it. 

Twenty days’ journey up the Marahon there existed. 
Von Rothstein told her, a forgotten remnant of an an- 
cient Portuguese mission station. When he was there 
last, about a year before, an old half-breed padre was in 
charge, and Von Rothstein had stayed with him several 
days. He suggested their journeying up thither and 
being married by the old man, who, uneducated as he 
was, and half native, could still tie the knot as tight as 
the Bishop of Roystadt himself ; and Alix, with a glad 
heart, and the future all rosy bright before her, con- 
sented. 

Von Rothstein set about preparations for their de- 
parture the next morning, and three days later, with 


54 WOOED AND Married and— ? 

the same crew as had carried him down the river to the 
trader's, they embarked once more on this new and 
most eventful journey. 

For two days they ran down stream till the waters of 
the Parahon joined those of its mighty rival. Then they 
turned to the west again and for twenty arduous days 
toiled sturdily against the strong current, till Von Roth- 
stein’s keen eyes discovered the little settlement with its 
great wooden crucifix and tiny wooden church, and they 
drew slowly in to the landing-place, where the old priest 
was already awaiting them, with an eager curiosity 
which proclaimed the severity and the loneliness of his 
exile. 

He greeted them with the heartiness of a man to 
whom a stranger is a surprise, a white stranger a nov- 
elty, and a white woman an almost unheard of curiosity. 
And when, after feeding them with all the luxuries, ani- 
mal and vegetable, which the nearer precincts of his 
parish of ten thousand square miles or so, could produce, 
Von Rothstein explained the reason of their coming, his 
professional enthusiasm knew no bounds. 

A marriage among his dusky flock was at all times a 
matter for extreme self-congratulation and public re- 
joicing. Marriages were few and far between, natural 
selection without ceremony and heedless of the blessing 
of the church, being more in accordance with the native 
ideas, though, since the good old man had, of late, insti- 
tuted the custom of a marriage feast at his own expense, 
they had become somewhat more frequent. But the 
idea of uniting in holy wedlock two white persons of 
birth and breeding, which his instinct told him these two 
were, almost threw him ol¥ his balance. Great were 
the preparations he considered necessary for a celebra- 
tion such as offered only once in a lifetime. And on the 
morrow, very early in the morning, in the little church, 
decked like a bower with branches and flowers, and in 
the presence of a score of the gentle, brown-skinned 
frequenters of the mission, these two were made one. 

“ And may the good God give you his richest blessing, 
my children,” said the priest, raising his hands over their 
bowed heads. 


WOOED AND MARRIED AND— ? 55 

Alicia Von Rothstein received the old man’s benedic- 
tion with a glad and grateful heart, and her husband 
accepted it unabashed. 

Von Rothstein would not have troubled about any 
official certificate of the marriage, but after a discreet 
absence of a couple of hours, the old man returned to his 
guests with a proud look of achievement decking his 
benevolent face, and with a grave paternal smile and a 
ceremonious bow, he presented Alix with a folded doc- 
ument, which proved to be the marriage certificate, 
drawn out in Portuguese, the Tupi Guarani tongue hav- 
ing no written characters. 

The certificate ran as follows: 

“ I, Pedro Veturio, priest of the Holy Catholic 
Church, in charge of the mission of Sao Grego- 
rio on the upper Marafion, do hereby certify 
that I have this day joined in the holy bonds of 
matrimony, according to the ordinances of my 
Church and the laws of the state, Karl von 
Rothstein and Alicia Roustaine, and I hereby 
pronounce them man and wife. Whom God 
hath joined, let no man dare to sunder. 

Signed this 14th day of September 1887. 

“ Pedro Veturio. 


Alix received it with a smile of thanks, and when, in 
the fulness of his heart at the consummation of his 
hopes. Von Rothstein tendered the old man a fee com- 
mensurate with his feelings, the worthy padre refused 
point-blank to accept it, but finally, after much pressing, 
acknowledged that if His Graciousness could find means 
to send him a bell of good deep tone to hang above the 
little wooden church, his cup would be full to overflow- 
ing. 

Von Rothstein marvelled and promised, and in due 
course and after many adventures, the bell was delivered 
by the German trader, and the deep, sonorous clang of 
it rang out along the river and into the forest depths, 
and so scared the would-be worshippers that for days they 


56 WOOED AND MARRIED AND — ? 

declined to come near the little church, but stood at a 
respectful distance, and waited behind the trees for de- 
velopments. 

Three restful days the newly- wedded pair stopped at 
the mission house, and supplied the worthy priest with 
items of the world’s progress and history up to a year 
or so before, which sufficed to keep him in a state of 
thoughtful amazement for the next few years of his life. 
It is hardly too much to say, in fact, that those three 
days were a liberal education to this Christian martyr, 
and gave him broader views of life than all his previous 
seventy years had supplied. 

“ It is a wonderful, wonderful world,” he said, “ but I 
would fear to mingle in it. I do not think I would be 
happier there than here.” 

“ You would not,” said Alix with a smile. “ You have 
chosen the better part.” 

“ I had no choice in the matter,” he said simply. 

“ The greater happiness is yours all the same,” she 
said. 

“ It may be so,” he replied somewhat wistfully, “ but 
these things you tell me of are almost past belief.” 

The next day they bade the old man good-bye, and 
resumed their progress up the river. He watched them 
till, with a farewell v/ave, they rounded the furthest bend. 
Then he sat long, with his eyes fixed upon the spot and 
listened in imagination to the booming of his deep-toned 
bell over forest and river, and mused upon these won- 
derful strangers and the many strange things they had 
told him. Then with a sigh he rose, and went slowly 
along to the little church, and prayed for a blessing upon 
the pair into whose life it had been his so unexpected 
privilege to enter. 

Then began for those two a honeymoon of delight 
which knew no waning, but waxed rather, as .the weeks 
ran into months and the months ran into a year of such 
gladness as neither of them had ever dreamed of. 

Von Rothstein treated this sweet girl -wife of his with 
the most loving care and the most chivalro'' '^end less, 
and for all their rough life in the wildernc not 

one jot of the courtly consideration due of 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


/ 


his heart, the delight of his eyes. He married her for 
love, and lover he remained as long as life was left to 
him, and none of the after-happenings availed to lessen 
in the very slightest degree the love and admiration his 
wife ever bore to him. If he sinned, it was all for love 
of her, and what surer passport to a woman’s forgiveness 
can any man have than that ? 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE ISLE OF PEACE. 

As the first year of their new life was drawing to a 
close. Von Rothstein brought his wife down the arid 
western slopes of the Andes by gentle stages, and with 
every easement of the road which forethought and tender 
care could devise, to Lima and Callao. Thence by 
steamer to Valparaiso, where their son was born and 
christened with his father s name, Karl. 

There perforce for a time they tarried, till health and 
strength came back to Alix, and with them all her charms 
of heart and mind and body enhanced a hundred-fold by 
her passage through the depths and the heights, so that 
the soul of her husband delighted in her more and niore, 
and he thanked his angels, good or bad, for this round- 
ing of his life which had come to him through her. 

It was here that Von Rothstein, though he had their 
child duly christened in his own rightful name, Karl von 
Rothstein, assumed for purposes of travel the name of 
Charles Roustaine, as his wife’s father had seen fit to do 
before him-. 

“ I have done with Vasco via for ever,” he said to his 
wife. “ You are my kingdom, Alix, and I want no 
other. I have disappeared. To all intents and pur- 
poses I am dead, so far as that other kingdom is con- 
cerned,” 


58 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


And with her father’s similar action before her Alix 
had no word to say against it. 

When Alix and Baby Karl were certified fit for travel, 
Roustaine, to call him by his new name, decided to sat- 
isfy the family craving for change of scene, in the pleas- 
antest and least arduous manner, by a long ocean ram- 
ble among the sunny islands of the Pacific. 

With that end in view he purchased a big, safe, roomy, 
two-hundred-ton schooner, the “ Wenona.” He re- 
named her the “ Princess Alix ” and fitted her at his 
leisure with an eye to comfort and safety only. 

He was fortunate enough to secure as Captain a good- 
looking young Scot from Port Glasgow — Gillies by name 
— who had just brought out from the Clyde a handsome 
500-ton yacht for SeiloraCousino of Lota, and was quite 
ready to close with Roustaine ’s liberal terms for a cruise 
among the Islands. He was a tall, sinewy fellow, a 
sailor to the finger-tips, and the very glance of his stead- 
fast blue eyes carried with it a satisfactory feeling of 
safety and trustworthiness. He proved a pleasant and 
genial companion, and in the later times of trial he 
proved himself a man. He engaged for Alix’s use and 
benefit a bright-eyed Chilian girl, Leona Mendez, whose 
father was quartermaster in the Chilian Navy. She 
proved a good and faithful maid, though indeed, through 
her lapse, there came on Alix, later, the heaviest burden 
of her life. 

And so, with Captain Gillies in charge, and a carefully 
picked crew of ten men, exclusive of mate and cook and 
cabin boy, they sailed from Valparaiso on the i oth of 
April 1889. 

During these three months at Valparaiso Roustaine 
had set all their affairs in order. He had written to the 
lawyers in London whose name Alix remembered, 
Messrs. Beltons of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, informed them 
of Mr. Roustaine’s death, and of his own marriage with 
Miss Roustaine, his cousin, and on her account requested 
information as to Mr. Roustaine’s property, and his dis- 
position of the same. To this in due course he received 
reply from Messrs. Beltons, that Mr. Roustaine’s will was 
in tiieir h?inds, th^t Mis^ Roustaine was sole beneficiary 


/ 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. Kg 

under it, and that on receiving from her the enclosed 
papers duly signed, conveying to them full powers to act 
on her behalf, they would prove the will and hold the 
property at her disposal. 

With Alix’s approval he returned the necessary 
papers properly executed, and requested them to 
invest the money in Consols and to re-invest the 
interest also in Consols as it accrued. His own funds, 
which he held at call at various banks in London, and 
which amounted to close on 0,000, he invested in 
Argentine securities. He would have preferred Chilian 
Bonds, but even at this time, with a sagacity pointed 
possibly by the weight of his new responsibilities, he 
noticed signs of the undercurrent of dissatisfaction with 
the President’s ideas and foresaw possible troubles in 
store for Chili. His wish was, and in it his wdfe fully 
agreed, that as they had no intention of returning to 
Europe for many years, some portion at all events of 
their funds should be within easy reach and available at 
any time, and at the moment Argentines were the most 
promising investment obtainable. 

And so in the highest of spirits, with all the happy 
future before them, with not a care in the world nor a 
cloud on their horizon, the “ Princess Alix ” spread her 
white wings and sails out of Valparaiso harbour that 
bright April morning, and with every leap of her prow 
carried them along to the great catastrophe which was 
to be the narrow gate to new paths and strange and 
unexpected happenings. 

They touched first at Robinson Crusoe’s Island, and 
then stretched away to the west, and after thiee weeks 
of varying fortunes arrived off Pitcairn. Then they 
meandered slowly northward among the myriad isles 
and reefs and atolls of the Paumotus, and then took a 
slant towards the east and fetched the Marquesas. 

They were rounding in towards Niikahiva when it 
came on to blow so hard that Captain Gillies deemed it 
wise to give the island a wide berth till calmer weat’hex 
prevailed; and that storm was, all unknown to her, one 
of the turning-points in Alix Roustaine’s life. 

The^ r^n befgre the great green rollers to avoid tak- 


6o 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


ing them in over the stern, with their jerking bowsprit 
pointing straight for that vast blank space which on the 
biggest of maps is unspotted even with tiny black dots 
and the ominous words, “ coral reefs,” or with still more 
vaguely speculative notes of interrogation. 

For full seven days the wind blew stormily from the 
southeast with never a sign of slackening and the green 
mountains roared and crashed under their stern, and 
climbed quivering up to heaven on either side of them, 
and swept on in front leaving them shuddering for the 
next onslaught, and there was no turning back, nor to 
the right hand, nor to the left. Where the Powers chose 
to take them, there they went, grateful for the staunch- 
ness of their little ship, which bore them gallantly 
and safely, though in no great comfort. And the 
Powers chose to take them to Raataua, lovely, lonely 
Raataua, whose name was to be graven on Alix’s heart 
even as Calais on the heart of Queen Mary, and by 
reason of loss also. ^ 

Far out in that mighty, blank, unmapped space lies 
Raataua, away from all the routes, rarely visited even by 
wandering whalers, and in the few charts in which its 
name appears it will be found inscribed in strange 
cramped handwinting and spelt according to the taste of 
the writer. Compared with it, Easter Island is a house 
of call, and Pitcairn but an outlying suburb of the 
Paumotus. 

To their great relief, on the eighth day the storm blew 
itself out, the wind settled down to a crisp breeze from 
the west, and the tumbling green hills of water drew in 
their threatening crests and slid under them in long un- 
broken undulations, smooth as glass and heavy-looking v 
as oil. 

Right in the eye of the sun as it rose, the watch caught 
a glimpse of a blur on the red disc, and when they 
swung aloft on the next wave every eye was on the 
look-out for it. There it was, a purple cone rising out 
of the sea like a blunt tooth pecking at the lower rim 
of the glowing ball. 

It was too solid for cloud and the chart showed no 
land thereabouts, The mate ^end dovm for Captain 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


6i 


Gillies, but when he came, it was only to add one to the - 
eager faces straining towards the sun. 

“ It’s an island, without doubt,” he said, ogling it with 
his glass, “ but there is no land within five hundred miles. 
What can it be?” 

“ Volcanoes,” suggested the mate. 

“Possibly. We’ll see, anyway. Keep her straight for 
it. I’ll have my sleep out.” 

They raised the. purple cone hour by hour, and Rous- 
staine and Alix watched it hopefully, eager if the chance 
offered for a turn on shore, for the last week had been a 
trying one for all of them, and especially for the young- 
ster. 

The cone turned to grey and then to green, and as they 
drew nearer a slight change of course split it into two 
noble hills, draped and cushioned in greenery from base 
to summit, on which their sea- weary eyes dwelt with 
grateful appreciation. 

“ Oh, Karl, we must go ashore. Baby is absolutely 
needing a change,” said Alix. 

“ Certainly we’ll go ashore, and stop for a month, if 
you like. What kind of people live here, Captain?” 

“ No idea. There is no such place. It’s a bogey 
island.” 

“ It looks pretty solid and tempting. We will try it, *- 
anyhow. Ah, look there !” 

As they drew in towards the land with keen eyes hang- 
ing over the bow for fear of reefs and sunken rocks, a 
lovely bay opened before them, set round with gleaming 
white sand, and running away inland as far as the bases 
of the two green hills. A long spear of the white sand 
ran up the valley which divided the hills, and here in 
the fringe of the woods lay sprinkled a score or so of 
native houses. 

Their approach had been noticed. Black dots ran 
about on the white sand, and presently a dozen tiny out- 
riggers were travelling towards them like so many ener- 
getic water beetles. 

Not quite sure what to expect from them. Captain 
Gillies loaded and ran out his four little brass guns, and 


62 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


distributed among the men the contents of the arms 
chest. 

But the precautions were unnecessary. The natives 
came racing along with shouts of welcome, and seeing 
they were unarmed and apparently friendly, ropes of in- 
vitation were dropped over the side, and they scrambled 
on board without fear or hesitation, splendid bronzes, 
tattooed from head to heel, and clothed in their native 
modesty and a simple girdle round the waist. 

One of the crew, a Tonga man, tried them with a few 
words of welcome in his own tongue. They laughed at 
his pronunciation, which they evidently considered 
provincial, but they understood him and he them, and 
so friendly communications were established. 

The liveliest member of the party was a splendid 
youth of about eighteen, over six feet in height, with a 
bright, bronze, intelligent face and a merry disposition, 
if the size of his smile was anything to go by. He in- 
formed them he was Illo, the son of Oneo, the chief of 
the island, and to their surprise, after hearing the cap- 
tain shout an order to one of his men, he suddenly burst 
out with, 

“Hello there! Lively now! Wait a bit! Damn!” 
and laughed hugely at their astonishment. 

This was, however, the sum total of his linguistic at- 
tainments, and through the Tonga man he informed them 
that many years ago, when he was only so high, — indi- 
cating his knee, — a ship like this had come to the island, 
but she had no tall masts — from which they judged that 
she was dismasted — with only one man on board, and he 
had lived on the island till he died. He was a very great 
and wonderful man according to Illo. He could put out 
the moon, and had done it more than once when he was 
angry, and he could make thunder and lightning when- 
ever he chose, and his name was Tiaki which they knew 
to be Island for Jack. The ship itself had gone to pieces 
in a storm, but some of the things out of her were still 
on the island. 

The visitors were shown over the ship, to their great 
delight, and the thing that tickled them most was Baby 
Karl. They insisted on his being undressed to see if he 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 63 

was really white all over, and poked him with their shin- 
ing bronze fingers, and laughed aloud at his responsive 
gurgles. 

“ My wife is anxious to go ashore. Captain,” said 
Roustaine. “ Is there any danger?” 

“ I should say not, but we will all take revolvers to 
make* sure. These islanders are treacherous devils 
sometimes;” and in a quarter of an hour the long-boat, 
pulling six stout oars and carrying Roustaine and Alix 
and Baby Karl and Leona and the Captain, was thrash- 
ing away towards the head of the bay, with the canoes 
trailing behind, their occupants yelling and paddling 
their hardest to keep up. 

The captain, however, deemed it wise to slow up be- 
fore reaching the shore, so that their new friends should 
have the chance of paving the way for their arrival. 

A restless mob of thirty or forty men and women 
awaited them on the beach, the men with spears and 
clubs. But as the canoes came shooting past up on to 
the white shelving sand, and their visitors retailed their 
experiences, spears and clubs were thrown aside, and 
men and women came crowding down into the water 
waving their hands and inviting them to land. The 
oars dipped, the nose of the long boat ran up the white 
sand, and they set foot on Raataua. 

Their young friend Illo had disappeared, but now the 
crowd opened and he appeared leading by the hand a 
very old man with slaty grey hair and beard, whom he 
pushed at them with the word “ Oneo,” and thus intro- 
duced his father. 

While the other natives crowded closely round, the 
old chief with his eyes fixed in rapt wonder on the fair 
face of the first white woman he had ever seen, bade 
them welcome. Then Illo shouted some orders to the 
women, but it needed much shouting and some hust- 
ling, for they hung round Alix and Leona and the 
baby with eyes and mouths equally wide with wonder. 
But at last they were persuaded, in various ways, to re- 
turn to their duties, and when presently Illo led the way 
to his father’s house, a plentiful feast ot yams and taro 
and baked breadfruit awaited the distinguished visitors. 


THE ISLE OF PEACE. 


64 

After they had fed, an exceedingly pretty girl, with 
whom the young chief seemed on the best of terms, and 
who seemed to be first favourite for the post of Mrs. 
Illo, came forward as spokeswoman for the rest, and in 
a musical voice and with peals of merry laughter begged 
that the white baby might be undressed for them to see 
him. So while the old chief and some of the principal 
men smoked Roust aine’s cigars in solemn appreciation 
with him and the captain, little Karl was disrobed once 
more amid the delighted wriggles and squeals of Nita 
and the other women, and the bond of friendship among 
them all was complete. 

Alix expressed a wish to .sleep on shore instead of re- 
turning to the closer quarters on board ship, and in 
view of the friendliness of the natives, the captain saw 
no objections. He left with them the Tonga man and 
three others, and returned with the rest to the schooner. 

Under Illo’s directions a couple of huts were cleared 
out for them, and fresh mats spread for their accommo- 
dation, and a plentiful supply of fresh fruit and spring 
water in wide bowls was brought in. 

In spite of certain discomforts devolving on them by 
reason of the habits of their predecessors in the occu- 
pancy of the hut, they thoroughly enjoyed that first 
night on shore after eight weeks afloat. But Roustainc 
determined to make better arrangements for the future, 
even if it entailed the building of a new house, and with 
that end in view he took a ramble round the village- in 
the early morning. 

There was one building there which had caught his 
eye and excited his curiosity the previous evening. It 
was larger than any other house in the village, square 
built, and, unlike the others, was closed in on all sides 
by strong plaited mats. It seemed unoccupied, 'and in 
front of it stood four great posts carved as to their tops 
into an uncouth semblance of heads, and stained red and 
black. 

He walked up to it, and assured by the silence that no 
one was inside, pulled aside one of the mats and looked 
in. It was a large roomy dwelling with mats spread all 


THE TSLE OF PEACE. 


65 

over tlie floor and a platform near one end. He was 
thinking of going in when a shout from a passing native 
who had stopped short at sight of him, caused him to 
turn. The native gesticulated wildly, and as Roustaine 
stood looking at him and wondering what was troubling 
him, the Tonga man came out of his hut, and to him 
the native shouted excitedly. 

“ What’s the matter with him ?” asked Roustaine. 
“ Is he ill ?” 

“ He says that house is tabu, and you must not touch 
it.” 

“ What’s wrong with it ? Why is it tabu ?” 

Here Illo joined the gathering and his face was graver 
than they had seen it. 

He spoke energetically to the Tonga man, who inter- 
preted to Roustaine. 

“ He says this is the house of Tiaki’s god, and Tiaki’s 
sacred books are in there just as he left them, and it is 
all tabu, and no one is allowed to go in.” 

“ Tell him I am Tiaki’s brother and know all about 
the sacred books, and I want this house to live in.” 

Illo acknowledged the weight of Roustaine ’s argument 
as to his relationship to Tiaki, but would not take the 
responsibility of lifting the tabu himself. 

“ I too can make thunder and lightning,” said Rous- 
taine. 

He drew his revolver from his pocket and fired a shot 
in the air, and the natives jumped responsive. 

“ And now for the sun,” he said and turning towards 
it, he stretched out his arm and in a loud voice began an 
invocation in the opening lines of the Iliad. 

The islanders could not understand his words, but they 
saw what he was at, and they remembered Tiaki’s awful 
powers. They bent double and fled each man to his 
hut, while Roustaine sat down on the sand and lit a 
cigar, and the Tonga man explained to him the myster- 
ies of the tabu. 

The patives peeped out and saw them sitting harm- 
lessly smoking and making no further attempts on the 
integrity of the sun, and one by one they ventured out 
again with anxious glances skyward. 


66 


THE ISLE OE PEACE. 


Roustaine sent the Tonga man to explain to the old 
chief that his only desire was to occupy the unused house 
of Tiaki, and that if permission were given him to do so, 
he would leave the sun alone. 

Captain Gillies had come hurrying from the ship in 
the long boat at sound of the shot, but his mind was re- 
lieved at sight of Roustaine sitting quietly smoking on 
the beach, and when the situation was explained to him, 
he lit his pipe and sat down beside him, while the Tonga 
man argued the matter out with the chief and his head 
men. He returned presently with Illo to say that the 
white man was at liberty to enter and use the house of 
Tiaki’s god at his own risk, but the chief would take no 
responsibility as to consequences. 

So, pulling aside one of the hanging mats, they all 
entered. It was a large roomy structure, with three big 
posts down the middle and smaller ones round the sides 
against which hung the mat screens. The platform 
backed up against the third pillar, and behind it was an 
apartment which Tiaki had evidently used as his private 
sanctum. On the platform stood a rude wooden table, 
and on the table an oblong packet made up in sail-cloth. 

“ The sacred books,” whispered Illo to the Tonga 
man, and they both looked on with awe when Roustaine 
stepped on to the platform and began opening the 
packet. 

When he and the captain looked through the contents 
and began to laugh, they were greatly scandalised and 
inclined to back out before fire came down from the skies 
to wipe out the desecrators. 

“ Ask him what Tiaki did with these books,” said 
Roustaine to the Tonga man. 

“ He made all the people come here every seventh 
day, and he read to them out of the sacred books,” was 
Illo’s answer. 

“ I’m afraid Master Tiaki was somewhat of a fraud,” 
said Roustaine, “ but,” he added to the Tonga man, 
“ you had perhaps better not tell him that.” 

The books were a nautical almanack for the year 1875, 
and the log book of the whaling brig “ Mary Ellis ” of 
Boston. 


THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 6/ 

!For a whole month they lived on the island and occu- 
pied Tiaki’s house, much to their own content and en- 
joyment, and to the great edification of the natives, who 
learned many things from them, and behaved through- 
out in the most friendly fashion. Then when at last 
they brought their minds to bidding good-bye to their 
island friends, Illo, the old chief’s son, who had listened 
open-mouthed to all the Tonga man’s stories of the 
wonderful world outside, begged permission to accom- 
pany them, and after much discussion they consented to 
take him, and promised to bring him back on their 
way home. If they worked up as far as the Sandwich 
Islands, as they intended to do, it would only be a 
question of a slant to the south-east of an additional 
thousand miles or so, and this was no great affair when 
time and distance were of no consequence, and enjoy- 
ment the only thing that mattered. 

The old chief did not favour the scheme very cor- 
dially, and Nita was disconsolate, but lUo’s heart was 
set upon it and he had his way, and with Alix and Rous- 
taine he hung over the stern railings till the last canoe 
tailed off with many shouted farewells and expressive 
and sorrowful hand-wavings, and until the two green 
hills of Raataua merged into one cloudy blur on the hor- 
izon, and then disappeared as if it had sunk into the 
depths of the sea. 


CHAPTER X. 

• THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 

With a favourable wind they laid their course for the 
Marquesas. But it was the tenth day before they made 
them, and these ten days out of sight of land had been 
long enough to induce in Illo an attack of home-sickness 
from which all the wonders of the ship, and all the kind- 
ness and attention of those on board, could not wean him. 


68 


THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 


He brightened up, however, at sight of the islands and 
pronounced them vastly inferior to Raataua. He made 
the same comment on every other place they touched at 
throughout the voyage, and found great comfort therein. 
They did their best to get him to confess the superior- 
ity of some of the lovely spots they visited, but though 
he willingly acknowledged their wonders, he always 
stoutly maintained that as an island Raataua beat them 
all easily. f 

From the Marquesas they wandered down throiigh the 
northern Paumotus to Tahiti, and then away west to 
Rarotonga and the Samoas and the Friendly Isles and 
Fiji, — up through the New Hebrides to the Solomons, — 
east to the Ellice and Gilberts, and north again to the 
Marshalls. 

So, in an endless summer of delight, they winged their 
devious way among the gleaming emerald islands and 
the white fringed reefs, now gliding gently like a beau- 
tiful white ghost, now lying safe inside the barrier reefs 
of some quiet lagoon while the surf roared and fretted 
outside, and again plunging and racing under bare poles 
past atoll and reef and frowning hills, all dimly seen 
through the mist of driving rain and flying sea- spume. 

And they enjoyed it all to the very fullest, the infre- 
quent storms but emphasizing the pleasures of the bet- 
ter weather; and to Alix, with her glad new burden of 
motherhood, which might indeed fetter but could not 
kill the wanderlust that was in her, their progress through 
these loveliest islands in the world, with the constant 
change which entailed no undue exertion, was entirely 
and absolutely charming. 

Roustaine proved a most tender and devoted married 
lover. Never for one single instant had she reason to 
regret the step to which he had persuaded her that morn- 
ing on the Upper Marahon, and she confessed, to herself 
and to him, that she was suprem ely and absolutely happy, 
and desired no better than that their life should so run 
on for ever. 

But change is life’s great tonic, and without it the soul 
grows limp and lax. And it is just then, when in is 
blindness the satisfied soul cries out that things as they 


THE SPOILING OF PAATaUA. 


69 


are are very, very good and cannot be bettered, that the 
Ruling Hand drops in the tonic, and the draining of the 
bitter cup is for the wringing and strengthening and 
purifying of the soul. 

From the Marshalls they stretched away north-east on 
the long flight to the Sandwich Islands, and then on the 
still longer homeward journey to the south. 

True to their promise, they headed for Raataua to 
drop Illo — a very different Illo from the one they had 
picked up six months before, an enlarged Illo, with his 
head full of new ideas of the white man’s wonders and 
of some higher things still, — into the arms of his expect- 
ant family and his waiting Nita. 

And as they drew into the latitude of the island, and 
Captain Gillies intimated its proximity to the eager youth, 
he climbed the mast and hung there motionless hour 
after hour, with his eyes straining forward for the first 
glimpse of the cloud-like cone. 

At last one afternoon he gave a great glad shout and 
waved frantic hands to the endangerment of his position. 

“ He sees it,” said Alix joyfully. 

“ Yes,” said the captain, “ I have seen it for an hour 
past through the glass, but I wanted him to see it first;” 
and then they all saw it, and with a fair wind on the 
quarter they raised it rapidly. 

Cloud-like — purple — grey — green — and they were run- 
ning into the bay, and then a chill silence fell on them, 
and Illo’s bronze face went livid, for the pleasant group 
of houses no longer stood on the gleaming spear of white 
sand at the head of the bay, but in their place charred 
heaps from which the blackened posts stuck up, gaunt 
and stark, like the arms of the dead appealing silently to 
heaven, — all the signs of ruin and desolation, but never 
a sign of life. Death and destruction were written so 
clear and large over all the scene, that the men in the 
bows swore only in whispers, while the folks astern 
looked on with amazement and horror too deep for words. 

They crept up, inch by inch, as near as they dared go 
because of the shoaling of the water, and then, instead 
of dropping anchor. Captain Gillies, as quietly as thoiigh 
he feared to wake the dead, brought round the ship’s 


tHE SPOILING OF RAATaUA. 


70 

head towards the open sea, and held her shivering in the 
light breeze pending developments. 

But they might have hung there all day without ad- 
vaneing matters. The palms swung their fringed fans 
slowly and heavily like funeral plumes, the great scarlet 
blooms of the hybiscus down below looked like clots and 
splotches of blood, and the silence of death hung over all. 

There was a rustle on deck, a splash in the water, and 
Illo was breasting his way rapidly to the shore. 

Then the ship woke up. Within three minutes a boat 
was speeding after him as fast as six pairs of strong arms 
could pull it, and each man had a revolver in his belt 
and a rifle at his feet. 

Roustaine and the captain went with them and eyed 
the brush behind what had been the village with keen 
suspicion as they approached the shore. 

And with good reason, for as Illo staggered panting up 
the beach, a boat’s length in front of them, a dozen wild fig- 
ures with clubs and spears sprang out of the undergrowth, 
and came leaping down to meet them with yells of defi- 
ance. The men backed the boat just as it was grating 
on the sand, and drew in their oars and picked up their 
rifles; but at sight of Illo the yelling ceased, and his fel- 
lows gathered round him, all talking at once and gesticu- 
lating wildly. 

“ All right, men, pull in,” said the captain; and they 
leaped ashore. 

Illo came out from the throng, his hands still pressed 
to his panting sides, his face a bronze cast of despair. 

“ All gone,” he said. “ Nita gone. Men all gone but 
these. Oneo dead.” 

“ How gone ? Gone where ?” asked Roustaine. 

“ Ship came two days ago. My people fed them. In 
the night they fired the houses, killed many, carried off 
many, and Nita.” 

“ Ask them how many men there w^ere and when they 
sailed, and which way they went,” said Roustaine; and 
to the captain: 

“ We must follow them;” and Gillies nodded. 

“ Ten, twenty, twelve men,” said Illo after a rapid dis- 


THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. yi 

cussion with the others. “ They sailed the morning be- 
fore this, and they went towards the rising sun.” 

“ We will follow them and try to get your people back,” 
said Roustaine. 

“ Illo too!” and he stepped down towards the boat. 

“ Yes, take him,” said Gillies, “ and half-a-dozen more 
if they’ll come. If we catch up with the ship, there’s 
bound to be a fight and there are none too many of us.” 

The point was put to Illo. He called certain of the 
men by name, and without hesitation they stepped into 
the boat and stowed themselves away where they could 
find room. The others stood watching in silence as they 
pulled back to the ship. 

“ What is it, Karl ? What has happened ?” asked 
Alix anxiously over the stern rail, as the boat drew in 
towards the schooner. 

“ Some scoundrelly ship has been in and slaughtered 
half of them and carried off the rest and Nita. We are 
going after them.” 

“ That’s right,” said Alix. “ Oh, poor Illo!” as he 
came despondently up the side. “ Let us get off at 
once.” 

“ I think you and the boy and Leona had better go 
ashore and wait there till we return,” said her husband. 

“ Not a bit of it,” said Alix. “ Where you go, we go.” 

“ We may have to fight.” 

“ Very well. If we must fight, we must.” 

“ But ” 

“ Now, Karl, you are just wasting time and every min- 
ute must be precious. Captain, make sail, I beg of you. 
We won’t go ashore.” 

Captain Gillies smiled, the boat was swung up, and be- 
fore the drops had ceased pearling from her keel, a turn 
of the wheel had filled the schooner’s sails and she was 
heading out of the bay. 

They rounded the southern point of the island, and 
then, under every cloth they could drop, sped away to- 
wards the east on the faint chance of coming up with the 
marauders. 

The islanders, in spite of the weight of care they car- 
ried, were full of curiosity as to the working of the ship, 


TiiE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 


;2 

and watched all that went on with wide-eyed wonder. 
Illo climbed as high up the mast as he could get, and hung 
there scanning the horizon like a hawk. One by one the 
others followed him, till the mast looked as though a 
swarm of gigantic bees had settled on it. 

Assured of the keenness of the outlook up above. Cap- 
tain Gillies turned his attention to preparations for the 
attack, should they be so fortunate as to come up with 
the kidnappers. The four small brass guns were loaded 
to the muzzle with home-made grape shot. Guns, re- 
volvers and cutlasses were laid out handy, and the men 
were eager for the fray. 

But the day passed and the clustered figures on the 
mast gave no sign. When night fell they came down 
stiff with their long watch, and ate heartily of the strange 
food proffered them, then sat in a clump in the bows 
smoking but talking little. 

The captain decided to carry on all night at the best 
speed he could make. There was the possibility of over- 
running the chase, but she had two days’ start and would 
doubtless make all the way she could, and so they took 
the risk. 

The night passed quietly, however, and the first peep 
of daylight found the bronze figures up aloft once more 
scanning the great void eagerly — astern, now, as well as 
ahead, lest by chance they should have passed the other 
in the night. 

But the great circle was flawless, and with increased 
vigilance they swept on, knowing that any moment a 
blur or a shimmer on the rim of the circle might pro- 
claim the quarry. But this day too passed without a 
sign, and they began to fear the failure of their en- 
deavor, and when the night dropped down on them, the 
captain and Roustaine were half inclined to give it up 
as a bad job. But when the matter was suggested to 
Illo, he begged them so vehemently to go on, that they 
could not find it in their hearts to disappoint him. 

In the middle of the night Roustaine was awakened 
from a heavy sleep, for they had none of them slept 
much the night before, by the captain’s hand on his 
forehead. 


THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 


73 


“ What is it?” he cried, half awake. 

“Come lip on deck,” said Gillies; and Roustaine 
dressed hastily and followed him. 

The men were all hanging over the port bow, and as 
Ronstaine came up the companion, the dull, far-away 
report of a gun fell on his ear. 

“ What is it?” he whispered to Gillies. 

“ That’s what we want to know. It’s shooting — away 
out there — but who and what, we can’t make out.” 

“ Can’t we get closer and see?” 

“ There’s hardly a breath of air, and it’s somewhat 
risky in the dark. What the deuce can they be shooting 
at?” 

“ It’s no good guessing. Let us go and see.” 

A word to the man at the wheel, and the ship’s nose 
came slowly round to the point whence the last reports 
had seemed to come, and they crept on so quietly as 
scarce to ripple the oil-smooth water. 

They held their breath and strained eyes and ears into 
the darkness ahead. It seemed as if the firing had 
ceased, and Roustaine began to doubt whether his ears 
had not deceived him when he first came up on deck. 

“ Are you quite sure it was shooting?” he began, when 
half-a-dozen venomous little spits of fire on the dark 
screen ahead, followed almost immediately by the irregu- 
lar muffled thud of the reports, gave him his answer. 
With brief intervals between, the same thing happened 
again and again, with occasionally a single shot in be- 
tween. And all the time they crept nearer and nearer, 
filled with extreme wonder that this usually deserted sea 
should suddenly have become occupied to such an extent 
that those who wandered in its immensities could not do 
so without falling foul of one another. Certainly they 
themselves were there with that very intention, but it 
seemed strange that in such a place the kidnappers 
should have run across still another set of enemies or 
avengers. 

The light wind died away till the schooner’s sharply 
arched fore -foot created not the slightest tremor in the 
glassy surface. Ahead all was silent as the grave, and 


THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 


74 

all they could do was to hang over the bows and wait for 
daylight. 

When at last the night grew pale, the ghostly half- 
lights of the dawn showed them a good-sized brig lying 
asleep, with all her sails aflop, about a mile away. They 
looked round for her assailant but could see none. They 
watched and waited, and Roustaine and Captain Gillies 
eyed her carefully with the glass, but could make no 
more of her than they saw. No one showed aboard of 
her, and so far she had not noticed them. 

They watched her cautiously, and waited, expecting 
every moment to see her bustle into life and activity 
whenever she caught sight of them. But the sun 
climbed above the rim of the circle, and mounted high, 
and the sleepy brig showed never a sign of life. 

“ What do you make of it. Captain ?” asked Rou- 
staine. 

“ Hanged if I know what to make of it. They seem 
uncommonly sleepy after their fight. What gets, me is, 
who were they fighting with ?” 

“ Themselves, maybe,” suggested Roustaiiie. 

“ Gad ! I shouldn’t be a bit surprised. Well give 
them another hour to wake up. Then we’ll go and 
see.” 

But the situation was the same at the end of the hour, 
and when the captain ordered the boat out, it was in the 
water inside two minutes, and the broad gash it made in 
the shining mirror with its six thrashing oars was a re- 
lief to the eyes and minds of those who stayed behind 
and watched its progress. • 

Roustaine, Gillies, Illo and three of his fellows went 
in the boat besides the oarsmen. Arrived within dis- 
tance, they hailed the brig. There was no answer, and 
yet to their straining ears it seemed as though a mur- 
mur of talk filled the ship. 

With cautious, tentative strokes, punctuated with keen 
glances and whispers of talk, they circled the silent 
ship. Then, as there seemed nothing to hinder, they 
drew in to the sides, and one of the islanders, grasping a 
hanging rope, scrambled up and over, and gave a great 
cry which drew the others quickly after him, An.d each 


THi: SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 75 

man as he landed on the deck echoed it. For the deck 
was a shambles, red with blood which lay in thickening 
pools, and strewn with bodies of men. 

“ You were right,” gasped Gillies. “ They have been 
fighting among themselves. God! What a sight!” 

The door of the deck house was belted on the outside 
and lying against it was a man whom, from his clothes, 
they took to be the captain. As they hauled away the 
body in order to open the door, it groaned and moved, 
and the right hand still grasping a revolver, trailed 
limply along the deck. They got him water from the 
butt and propped him up with his back against the shady 
side of the house. Then they carefully examined the 
other dead men, to see if perchance any spark of life 
was left in any of them. But they found them all dead 
enough, except one among the lot lying forward Him 
also they carried carefully and propped him up along- 
side the other, and gave him water. 

But he was far gone, and even as they tried to get the 
water down his throat he lurched and fell against the 
captain. As the heavy eyes of the latter opened on him, 
they blazed out with a sudden fury of hate. The feeble 
hand clawed for the revolver, and before any of them 
saw what he was at, he dragged it up against the other’s 
body and fired, then fell back with a smile of satisfac- 
tion and lay still. 

While the white men were still looking down distress- 
fully on this little closing scene of the tragedy of the 
brig, the bronze ones had been prowling about to some 
purpose. Half-dead white men were of no consequence 
to them. They knew their friends must be somewhere 
about the ship, and murmurous sounds from the hold 
drew them thither. They dragged off the hatch, and 
sprang down through the foetid outrush of air. An 
exultant shout from them brought the white men up 
on the run. 

The hold seemed filled with waving bronze arms, and 
squirming brown bodies, and sprawling brown legs, 
which were anchored to the deck with clanking chains, 
and the prisoners greeted their rescuers v/ith yells of 
joy, 


76 THE SPOILING OF RAATAUA. 

But Illo, after a hasty glance round, climbed up on deck 
again, and hurried aft to the deckhouse. He burst open 
the door with one heave of his brawny shoulder, and went 
in followed by Roustaine. The house was empty, but 
there was a narrow companion way at one side and 
down this Illo leaped and Roustaine followed. 

Three doors stood before them, and they burst them 
open one after the other, and in the third small cabin, 
in the darkest corner, all curled up in terror, crouched 
Nita. 

She eyed them fearfully for a mioment, as though 
doubting her eyes, then with a scream of joy she sprang 
into Illo’s arms, and Roustaine left them alone. 

When he reached the deck, the islanders were stream- 
ing up out of the hold as fast as they could be freed 
from their chains, and were dancing about to get the 
stiffness out of their legs, or sitting on the deck chafing 
their torn and bruised ankles where the chains had 
scored them, or were crowding round the water-butt 
making good the long drought of the hold. 

The dead bodies of their kidnappers stirred up their 
worst feelings, and for lack of knives wnth which to hack 
them, they began to kick them with taunts and jeers. 
But Captain Gillies put a stop to that, by ordering his 
men to fling the bodies overboard, where they diS' 
appeared in a moment amid a wild scurry of shark fins. 

Then Illo came on deck leading Nita by the hand, and 
the islanders welcomed them v/ith shouts, and gathered 
round them in a solid chattering mob 

The white men set to work to get the ship into decent 
order. They sluiced the decks with swirling buckets of 
v/ater, to the great contentment of the swollen brown 
ankles, and trimmed the sails to a faint ripple of air that 
had come up, and set her head towards the schooner. j 

Great was the relief and joy on board the “ Princess 
Alix ” as they crept within hailing distance, at the happy ■; 
termination of the adventure. Captain Gillies and’ Rous- ? 
taine, with Illo and Nita and a dozen of the recovered ; 
islanders, went back to the schooner, while the mate and i 
half-a-dozen of the schooner’s crew were constituted a ! 
prize- crew and placed in charge of the brig, and without 1 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 

further loss of time both ships turned and headed slo • 
for Raataua. 

It took three days of light winds to carry them back 
to the island, and great was the wonder of the islanders 
at the occult power which enabled the captain to find his 
way across the sea by day and by night alike, and when 
in the afternoon of the third day the cone rose slowly 
above the sky-line right ahead, they alternated betwixt 
dumb admiration at his cleverness and boisterous exul- 
tation at sight of their island home* 


CHAPTER XL 

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 

The light breeze died away completely before they 
got into the bay, and they had to let down the boats and 
tow the ships up to a safe anchorage. 

“ It’s just as well we’ve got in,” said Captain Gillies to 
Roustaine. “ I don’t like the look of things, and the ba- 
rometer is falling out of sight.” 

“ It seems to me as if we were in for a spell of calm. 
I don’t know when I felt it so hot.” 

“ But for that barometer, I would think so too. I should 
say there’s been a big storm down south somewhere. 
Just look at those waves.” 

Smooth as oil they came rolling in, heavy and sullen 
like the remnants of a broken army with no spirit for 
fight left in them, but ready to wreak their vengeance 
on any defenceless thing they came across. Up the bay 
they came, swirling and twisting, and rushed up the 
white beach with a dull, angry roar, while on the rocks 
of the spit which ran out like a protecting arm from the 
southern hill and enfolded the bay on that side, they 
crashed in ceaseless thunder and sent cascades of spray 
over into the bay itself, 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 


78 

“ Things certainly look curious,” said Roust aine after 
a long, silent look at the waves. “ You’d better prepare 
for bad weather. Captain.” 

“ I intend to. Look at that sun. That’s enough to 
give one the blues.” 

It was just sinking, red as blood, in a veil of mist, and, 
when it dipped, the restless water took on a ghastly , livid 
hue which was dismal in the extreme and filled them 
with discomfort. 

The islanders had all been put ashore at once, and had 
gone up into the hills to seek the remnants of their families. 
In a day or two they would begin rebuilding their 
houses. For the moment it was good enough to be back 
among their own surroundings, and the houses could 
wait. 

As there was no place to live in ashore, Alix and the 
boy and Leona perforce stayed aboard ship with the 
men, and had to be content with promises for the future 
as soon as the houses were rebuilt. 

“ Are we safe here. Captain, if it comes on to blow?” 
asked Roustaine. 

“ What can v/e do?” said Gillies. “ There isn’t a 
breath of air, and we could not tow out far enough to 
make it worth while trying. If any wind comes, I shall 
try to run out if we have time ; but when it comes, it 
will probably come all of a heap. We will snug all 
down, and I have got double cables on the anchors. 
They will hold all right unless something very extraor- 
dinary happens.” 

The stars at first shone larger and brighter and 
seemed to hang lower than usual, but towards morning 
they seemed to grow old and weary, and their light 
took on a ragged fringe as scant wisps of cloud 
began to scud across the sky. In the dark the sea, 
wherever it broke, shone with pale blue and yellow 
fires. There was a feeling of unrest and expectancy 
abroad, and the barometer was falling ever}^ hour. 

But the night passed, and the sun, red and angry as 
if he had passed a bad night, looked out for a few min- 
utes ^t the troubled scene, and then hid away behind a 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 79 

Splatter of dirty red and yellow clouds, and these, fad- 
ing, left the morning grim and gray. 

The long rollers, no longer smooth and oily, but cold 
and troubled and fretful, yapped sullenly at the ships 
as they rushed past, as though to tear them from their 
holdings and fling them ashore. 

And now from somewhere out at sea there came a 
low, monotonous moaning. The sky filled with gray- 
black clouds which came rolling up as though from 
some great volcanic funnel, and through them now and 
again the sun thrust a long ghostly i finger, but it only 
seemed to stir the tumult below into wilder unrest. 

The far-away moaning grew louder, and the sky be- 
came black as night. Then there came a flash and a 
sharp crackling peal which went echoing along the sky. 

As though at the signal, the black curtain in the west 
rived open, and the anxious watchers on the schooner 
saw the great swelling round of the sea burst up in 
spouts and jets of foam. 

“ You must get below, Mrs. Roustaine,” said the cap- 
tain to Alix, “ and hang on tight when it strikes us.” 

He was hurrying to and fro, giving rapid final orders 
and seeing them executed. 

“ Oh, do let me stop,” said Alix. “ I would like to 
see it above everything.” 

“ No. Get down quick. We are in for a bad time, 
I’m afraid.” 

“ Won’t you come down, Karl ?” she said to her hus- 
band. 

“ No, dear, my place is here,” he said. 

She went down reluctantly, with one last glance at 
the approaching tumuit, and one last look at her hus- 
band. 

Captain Gillies had done all he could to make things 
tight and safe on board. Now, as the very last thing of 
all, he had a spare sail drawn over the companion hatch, 
and himself bound it round with many coils of stout 
rope. 

Then those on deck turned to face what was coming. 
Their outlook westward was shortening every second. 
A towering black wall of water w^s rushing down upon 


So 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 


them with the speed of an express train, and behind it 
was the hurricane. It looked as high as their mast- 
heads, and the tumultuous crest of it was white as snow 
against the lowering sky. 

“My God! This is awful! Hang on for your lives !” 
shouted Gillies, and then it was on them. 

Some of the islanders had come down to the beach to 
see how it fared with the ship. They saw that awful 
crested wall come roaring into the bay. They saw the 
flank of it come tumbling out of the sky as it leaped the 
spit as though no spit were there. They saw brig and 
schooner buried beneath the terrific onrush. Then they 
saw their bowsprits point for a moment straight to heaven 
in the midst of the wild turmoil. Then they turned 
and fled for their lives up the hillside, and barely saved 
them. For the hurricane beat them flat on the sloping 
earth, and dazed and deafened them with its hideous 
uproar, while all around them the palm trees snapped 
like pipe-stems, and came crashing down among the 
undergrowth, and added to their terrors. 

And when at last, narrow-eyed and panting, they 
wriggled themselves round, and the storm held them 
flat against the hillside, the face of things was changed. 
They looked out on the open sea, for the spit was 
under water, and the waves were churning and foam- 
ing up among the greenery of the hillsides, the ships 
had disappeared, and between the two hills there roared 
an angry race of waters which filled them with fears for 
their own folks in the interior of the island. 

They crept on up the storm-beaten hill, with the wind 
screaming at their backs and thrashing them with the 
spray of the shredded waves. They struggled on up to 
the crest, and sank down breathless in the lee of it, gasp- 
ing with amazement, for the great tidal wave had flooded 
all the inland valley and the wind still piled the water 
in. Their taro fields and plots of plantains and ba- 
nanas were gone, and far away at the head of the valley 
were two dark shapeless objects, tossing about upon the 
tumult, which could only be the ships. 

They sat and watched and waited in dull, dazed won- 
der, for never in the memory of man had anything like 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 


8l 


this come to them before. The dark gray clouds boil- 
ing along like smoke overhead were suddenly tinged 
with red, and climbing back up the hill, they found the 
sky clear in the west and the sun just sinking. The 
hurricane had passed on, and the water was beginning 
to pour back between the hills into the bay. 

But the terror of the storm had beaten the heart out 
of them, and night fell, swift and sudden, before they 
had mustered courage to move from the security of the 
hilltop. So they crouched shivering in the ferns all night, 
and at daybreak picked their way down the hillside and 
along the ruined valley strewn deep with sand and mud. 

They were joined presently by Illo and others of their 
fellows, who had escaped up the other hill, and they all 
started off to see what v/as left of the ships. 

The brig lay nearest. She had turned turtle and lay 
bottom upwards, and she was full of gaping holes. There 
was nobody on board. They passed on and reached 
the schooner. Her state seemed almost as bad. She 
was jammed right side up among the rocks at the head 
of the valley, and the sharp rock teeth had gone through 
her skin as if it had been pasteboard. And as they stood 
regarding her dismal condition, through a ragged hole in 
the planking they heard the cheerfiil babbling of Baby 
Karl. They scrambled on board. Captain Gillies’ 
shield over the companion was still where he had bound 
it, but the doors behind had yielded to the pressure of 
the water. They tore it down and descended to the 
cabin which was in a state of utter chaos, lamps and 
mirrors lying all in splinters, and everything in utmost 
confusion. 

The babbling of the child drew them to one of the 
small state-rooms. They opened the door with some 
difficulty, for the whole ship was warped and twisted 
with the rough usage of the storm. Inside on the floor 
they found Alix and the maid lying in pitiful condition. 
A sharp fang of rock which had bitten right through 
the side of the ship, stuck up venomously among them 
from a setting of bristling white splinters. Baby Karl 
sat up between his mother and Leona, crooning to him- 
self and thumping them with his little pink fists to at- 


82 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE. 


tract their attention. The maid moaned feebly as they 
entered, her mistress lay still and silent, bruised and 
battered and unconscious. 

Illo sent Baby Karl off by one of his men to Nita, 
and then they did what they could for Alix and Leona. 
With every care they carried them up to the warmth of 
the sunshine on deck, for their clothes were soaked and 
sodden, and the whole ship felt and smelt as if it had 
been under water for a week. 

Both the women were sorely hurt, but Alix in her en- 
deavours to protect the boy, had fared much the worst. 
In addition to being one mass of bruises from head to 
foot, her right arm was broken and she lay and gave no 
sign of life. 

When the great wave caught the schooner, the masts 
fortunately snapped short off. Then she rolled over and 
over in the wild rush between the hills,and finally jammed 
among the rocks right side up. During the rolling pro- 
cess Leona’s precautions were all for herself, while the 
mother’s were all for her boy. Clasping him in her 
arms, and protecting him with her body, she did her 
best to interpose herself between him and the crazy 
cabin walls and roof and floor, which seemed to dash 
themselves at her in ceaseless vicious endeavour. 

It was only when the ship settled down after the final 
crash, and the savage tooth of rock came splintering 
through into the cabin, that her senses left her, and the 
strenuous fight won, she gave it up, and Sank down un- 
conscious and apparently lifeless. 

Illo, with forethought born of his six months’ sojourn 
among the white men, had mattresses from the cabin 
bunks carried over to the hillside, and such other com- 
forts as commended themselves to him under the cir- 
cumstances, and having seen the sufferers carefully laid 
upon the beds, he left them to the ministrations of Nita 
and the other women, while he went back to search 
among the rocks at the head of the valley for any other 
possible survivors. 

At the foot of the hill he met two of his men bearing 
between them the body of Captain Gillies, bruised and 
battered almost out of recognition, but still, the men as- 


THE GREAT CATASTROPHE, 8$ 

serted, with signs of life in it. He sent them on their 
way up the hill and went on along the valley. 

Four dead bodies of sailors they found, and with all 
their searching could find no more. The rest had all 
been carried off by the retreating waters. Of Rous- 
taine they found no trace. They knew he must be dead, 
though at present there was no proof of it. And Illo, 
for remembrance of all that Roustaine had done for him, 
searched long and anxiously, till there was no place left 
to search, and he was forced reluctantly to give the mat- 
ter up, and come to the conclusion that Captain Gillies 
and Alix and Leona' and Baby Karl were all that were 
left of his white friends. 

And now these four fortunate unfortunates reaped 
where they had sown, and in this time of misery and 
bitter trial the harvest of remembered benefits was a 
plentiful one and proved their salvation. 

The islanders speedily got their own affairs into work- 
ing order again. The houses were rebuilt with many 
improvements introduced under Illo’s directions, but in 
the same old spot where the village had always stood. 
The plots and plantations were laid out anew, and mean- 
while fish was plentiful and wild fruits to be had for the 
seeking, and except for the vacant places in the com- 
munity Raataua began to look like itself again. 

Baby Karl became at once the pet of the native wo- 
men, and lorded it over them like a little king. His 
only danger was of being completely spoiled by their 
attentions and caresses. 

Leona was soon up and about, not much the worse for 
her experiences. 

But for Alix and Captain Gillies it was a time of cruel 
suffering both in mind and body, and their recovery was 
slow and painful, so very slow and so very painful in 
Alix’s case, and so broken in spirit was she at the 
completeness of the misfortune that had befallen her, 
that at times she said to herself, “ I would as lief die as 
live. My life is over,’* for the strange and wonderful 
future which lay before her, with its ups and down, its 
poignant griefs and its more than compensating joys, was 
all behind the veil. 


84 


PICKING UP THE THREADS. 


She thought her life was over and it was but just be- 
ginning. 

And then little Karl would come toddling up to her 
bedside, rosy, brown and sturdy and almost as naked as 
his little playmates, and full of gleeful baby chatter. 
And the mother’s heart would beat the stronger for the 
sight of him, and for his sake she forced herself to take a 
fresh hold on life, convinced all the while that the best 
of it was passed, and that what was left was but a broken 
remnant. 


CHAPTER XII. 

PICKING UP THE THREADS. 

The green spear-heads of the new plantings were well 
above ground before Alix was sufficiently recovered to 
be up and about. Both spirit and body had been sorely 
wounded and broken by the catastrophe, and for weeks 
she lay listlessly on the couch of sweet dried grasses, 
which a very short experience taught her was infinitely 
more soothing to the quivering mass of 'bruises which 
composed her body, than any ship’s bed that ever was 
made. 

But by degrees the absolute rest, and the sweet soft 
air, and the careful ministrations of the women, restored 
her to a semblance of her former self. The broken 
bones joined again, the bruised body and shattered 
nerves recovered strength and tone, and even the broken 
spirit slowly healed by effluxion of time ; but this came 
last of all, for heart-wounds are deeper than body- 
wounds and harder far to heal. 

Captain Gillies had visited her many times during her 
slow recovery, and had done his best to cheer her into 
a new lease of life, although at times his own broken 
ribs grinding against one another had given him quite 
enough to think about. 

At last he induced her to walk with the help of his 


PICKING UP THE THREADS. 


^5 

arm, round the shoulder of the hill, till they reached a 
point whence they could see the curving bay and the 
sapphire spread of sea, and could hear the roar and hiss 
of the surf on beach and rock. There they both drank 
in new life with the sweet salt air, though Alix shivered 
at first sight of the bay and its empty anchorage, and 
there grew up in her a great desire to get away from the 
lovely island which had been so fatal to her hopes. 

“ You never found him ?” she asked suddenly, after a 
long silence, as they sat in the undergrowth that first day. 

“ No,” answered Gillies slowly, “ the sea carried him 
away with all the others. Four only we found, the rest 
went out with the tide.” 

She had never asked before. On her first return to 
consciousness Nita had brought Baby Karl and Leona 
to her, and had told her that besides themselves only the 
captain was left alive; and Gillies in his visits to her in 
her weak and listless condition had feared to touch the 
open wound. 

“ Shall we ever be able to get away, or must we live 
here for ever ?” she asked gloomily after a time. 

“ Oh, we must hope for the best,” he said with an 
assumption of cheerfulness, which was born in him only 
at her question. “ Some ship may call, and meanwhile 
I must try my hand at boat building.” 

“ How far is it ?” she asked. 

“ To the Marquesas about a thousand miles. With a 
fair wind say ten days’ sail.” 

“ And if a storm came on — ?” 

He shook his head. “ The chances would be against 
us. Our voyage would probably be a short one.” 

“ Meanwhile,” he said after another silence, and witb 
a quick side glance at her sad white face, “ we have 
much to be thankful for. You have that splendid little 
fellow left to you. We have the loveliest island in the 
world to live on, and, thanks to Illo and what went be- 
fore, the people are more than friendly.” 

He might have added an item of hiS own. The feel- 
ing was there, but vague and undefined, and had not yet 
voiced itself even in his inmost heart. He only felt that 
what might have seemed to him an exile of weariness 


86 


HCiCiNG UP THE THREAD^?. 


and deprivation, bore quite a different aspect, and that 
it was the fact of her presence that made all the differ- 
ence. 

Once she could get about, her health came back rap- 
idly, and with it all the charms and graces with which 
Nature had so amply dowered her. And Gillies, as his 
strength too returned with the piecing of his broken ribs, 
was sometimes surprised at his own cheerfulness. He 
was a simple, straightforward sailor, thoroughly practi- 
cal, and with no turn for introspective speculation as to 
mental causes and effects. He knew many things, — 
there were few things connected with his own profession 
which he did not know, and these had come to him by 
hard-bought experience. And he felt many things, but 
of these he knew nothing except that they were there. 
Whence they came, or why, and whither they might tend, 
were problems upon which he wasted no time, simply 
because he was not built that way. 

The schooner and the brig still lay just where the 
waters left them, but at Gillies’ suggestion they had been 
very effectually stripped of everything which could by 
any means be turned to account either for Alix’s com^- 
fort or for the well-being of the islanders. 

The great sea- stained carcases of the ships lay there 
amid the newly springing plantations, stnking monu- 
ments of the greatest storm the island had ever seen. 

Alix had never been near them since the day she was 
carried up the hillside more dead than alive, and for a 
long time she shuddered whenever she caught sight of 
them. To her still sore heart they were the tombstones 
of all her hopes. And perceiving her feeling in the 
matter. Gillies set the islanders to the task of dismantling 
them, carrying to the seaward side of the hill all likely 
planks for his prospective boat- building, with such nails 
and bolts and cordage and caulking as might be useful 
to him; and the rest was treasure trove to the natives, 
and almost compensated them for all their losses. 

Native-like, they had rebuilt their, village on the old 
site, on the spear of white sand which ran from the head 
of the bay up into the valley, and their plantations too 
were just where the old ones had been. 


PICKING UP THE THREADS. 8/ 

When Gillies tried to persuade them to try the hillsides 
as being safer locations, they only laughed, and said that 
never before had such a thing happened, and it probably 
never would happen again, — that that was the proper 
place for the village, and that the soil of the valley was 
the richest in the island, and nowhere else would their 
yams and plantains and bananas grow so well. 

And so, by the time the ship had been carried piece- 
meal away, the fruitful valley was green and smiling as 
of old, all except one bare bald spot right at the head, 
where the terrible wave had met its master in the sheer 
hillside, and pounding furiously and biting savagely at it 
during that terrible afternoon, had brought down tons 
of sandy soil and huge chunks of rock with the palms 
that grew among them, and whose long thin trunks lay 
strevvui about, dried and blackened with the sun, the last 
vestiges of the ruin wrought by the alien waves. 

Upon this spot — among the piled up rocks and 
the stark boles of the dead palms and the fantastic 
swaths of sand, for some reason — occult unless it was 
that it was all new and strange, — the native children, 
with Baby Karl as the centre of all their games, had 
fixed as their chief and chosen play-ground, deserting 
for the time being even the beach and the surf. 

Certainly no better place could have been devised for 
a score of naked little men and women ranging from two 
to eight years old, and the yells and screams of delight 
which rang out all day long from the sand patch at the 
head of the valley testified to the aptness of their choice. 

Every morning the little brown battalion came swarm- 
ing up the hillside chattering like monkeys, — eyes rolling 
and glancing, teeth flashing with smiles and laughter, 
and every one of them stark naked. 

They danced and played and squirmed round Alix’s 
house with shouts of “ Tellac Ilala!” (Give us the little 
moon) till Baby Karl was handed over to them, clad in 
his little white blouse. Then the two biggest of the party 
— Nita’s eight year old sister for one — would take him 
by the hand, and away they all went down the hillside, 
the little white legs beneath the little white shirt twink- 
ling like a pair of little drumsticks, and forming the head 


88 


PICKING UP THE THREADS. 


of the comet, and the frisky brown tail streaming out 
vociferously behind. 

He always started in decent attire, and always wriggled 
out of it with a shriek of delight as soon as the sand 
patch was reached, and played all day as naked as the 
others, and came home with it in a bundle in his hand, 
and laughed all over his rosy brown face when his 
mother and Leona scolded him for doing so. For what 
was the good of a shirt when you were wallowing in and 
out of pools all day long, and standing shrieking under 
the spray of the little waterfall, which used to run tink- 
ling down the hillside, but now perforce had to leap from 
top to bottom of the cliff, and fell in a sparkling shower- 
bath wafted hither and thither by the breeze, and so 
made ever changing channels through the sand, some of 
which could be damned up by the exertions of their lit- 
tle flat paddles into pools almost deep enough to swim 
in. 

It was a merry life and a healthy, and the boy throve 
mightily, and grew sturdy and straight-limbed and strong, 
and presently became a very fish for swimming, like the 
rest of them; and he learned to chatter in their own 
sweet tong^ie of musically strung vowels with the best of 
them. And the mother’s heart swelled large for the joy 
of him, though the loss of his father was still sore upon 
her. 

And here one day on the sand patch, with its reser- 
voirs and channels among the rocks and the fallen palms, 
little Karl was chief actor in a gruesome scene, the full 
understanding of which was fortunately beyond him and 
so left no unpleasant memory. 

The breeze at the top of the cliff was blowing stronger 
than usual from the south, and it carried the little water- 
fall further up the sand patch than it had ever done be- 
fore. 

The bigger boys saw that if they could barricade the 
stream in one certain spot, they could make a larger 
pond than ever they had had yet. So they marshalled their 
naked levies, and all set to work on the dam, rolling up 
stones and piling up the sand on top of them and build- 
ing firm and strong. 


PICKING UP THE THREADS. 89 

Little Karl with the rest dug and rolled and shouted 
with the excitement of a great endeavor, and by a 
strange chance it was his little paddle which, delving into, 
the sand by the side of a boulder, struck something that 
would not give way and yet was not rock. 

He worked away vigorously, and then stood frowning 
in wonder and discomfort at the thing he had uncovered. 
He uttered an exclamation which brought all the others 
round him, and for a moment silence reigned along the 
sand patch as all the baby faces clustered with staring 
eyes round the thing which Ilala had uncovered. It was 
the head of a man — a head covered with brown hair, 
and with brown hair on the — on what had been the face. 
Nita’s little sister, with an instinct perhaps of incongru- 
ity, perhaps only of matronly protection, seized her little 
charge by the hand, and dragged him away down the 
valley towards the beach and the village, as fast as she 
could pelt, and after her in silence came the tail of the 
comet. 

She went straight to Illo’s house and there found 
Captain Gillies also. The story of the gruesome find 
was quickly told, and, bidding the children play on the 
beach. Gillies and Illo sped away up the valley to the 
sand patch. 

It was the body of Charles Roustaine which they 
found there, and carefully and reverently they un- 
earthed it from its too shallow resting place, and going 
back to the village for better tools, they dug a grave deep 
in the hillside, and in it they laid him carefully and rever- 
ently to rest again. And they quietly decided to say no 
word to Alix, for the present at all events, as it would 
only mean the re-opening of her wounds, and the bruis- 
ing afresh of a heart just beginning to recover from its 
loss. 

Alix and Leona noticed that the children no longer 
played at the sand-patch, but had transferred the scene 
of their operations to the beach, but they set it down to 
the whims of childhood, and under the tongue-tying 
injunction of Illo and Captain Gillies, no word of the 
discovery of the body reached them, 


90 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 

The next event of importance in the little community 
was the marriage of Illo and Nita, which took place 
about six months after the deluge, and it was prob- 
ably this and the radiant happiness which filled the lives 
of those two young married people and more or less in- 
fected the whole village, which set Captain Gillies’ 
thoughts spinning in a new orbit, the sun and centre of 
which was Alix Roust aine. 

It was almost inevitable that this should be so. Here 
were they two stranded on this uttermost island, levelled 
by force of circumstances, whatever their difference of 
position previously, cut off from their kind probably for 
ever, unless, by a venture desperate in the extreme, 
they took their lives in their hands and accepted every 
risk for the one possible chance of safety. 

Why should they take such a dire risk, supposing even 
he was able to construct a craft which held out any pos- 
sibility of safety ? Why should they not be content to 
live their lives in peace and happiness in this island 
paradise, where the frets and cares of the outside world 
were represented only by the ceaseless rush of the surf 
on the white beach, where wealth and place and posi- 
tion were unknown quantities, and life would pass in a 
dream of lotus-eating calm ? 

Ah! why not ? Well, chiefly because it takes two to 
make a contract, and no matter how vehement the 
wishes of the party of the first part, the consent of the 
party of the second part has also to be obtained, and Alix 
Roustaine, with never the faintest thought of the things 
the future held in store for her, had equally not the 
faintest wish to spend the rest of her life in Raataua, 
beautiful though it was, and overflowing with hospitality 
and kindness. 

Captain Gillies’ vague hopes and ideas were slow cf 
taking to themselves names, but the feelings were there 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 9 1 

and the roots struck all the deeper for the lack of show 
above ground. In all their intercourse hitherto he had 
been simply Captain Gillies, late commander of her late 
husband’s pleasure boat, and she, Mrs. Roustaine, the 
owner’s wife. Now, vaguely, underneath, even when 
in her presence, he came by degrees to be to himself 
Charles Gillies, and she Alix Roustaine, the sweetest 
and most beautiful woman in the world. But no slight- 
est sign of this that was in him had he ever permitted 
to show. 

He was by nature self- repressed and disguiseful of his 
feelings, and when one day, after sitting with her on the 
side of the hill overlooking the bay, he saw her safely 
back to her house, and himself went back to the spot 
they had just quitted, and flung himself down in the 
undergrowth where she had been sitting, it came upon 
him suddenly that this woman was all the world to him, 
and he hid his face in his hands and wondered at him- 
self, for in the first shock of the discovery the thought 
seemed to him not far from sacrilege. 

He lay there all through the glowing sunset and long 
after night had fallen, wondering, doubting, thinking, 
and at last, as the result of much thought, daring faintly 
to hope that under all the levelling circumstances of 
the case, the thoughts that were whirling in him might 
be neither so foolish nor so hopeless as at first they had 
seemed to be. 

In the self-consciousness and diffidence born of this 
sudden self- revelation, and with an ingenuousness of 
which a man more versed in womankind would never 
have been guilty, he determined to prove his self-control 
by keeping out of Alix’s way for a day or two, until in 
fact he had become more accustomed to the new stand- 
point from which his whole nature insisted on regarding 
her. Then with a strong grip of himself he would meet 
her as before, and she should see no difference in him, 
but bit by bit, and by very slow degrees, he would make 
his approaches, so delicately and so cautiously, that the 
watchful sentinels of her heart should have no cause for 
alarm, and so in time he might hope to become master 
of the inmost citadel itself. 


92 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 


All that commended itself to him as mental strategy 
of the very highest order, as he paced the beach for the 
better part of two nights, with the great stars burning 
low above, and the great white fangs of the stirf rush- 
ing up at his feet with a roar and sliding back with a 
venomous hiss. 

But when on the third day he strolled up to Alix’s 
house and she greeted him with anxious warmth : 

“ Why, Captain Gillies, we began to fear you were lost !” 
he stumbled and fell from his high estate and murmured 
that he had been away to the fishing, which was true, 
but only half the truth, and had all the appearance of a 
lie. 

“ Away to the fishing ?” she exclaimed, with an arch- 
ing of the delicate brows, — “ Two whole days fishing ? 
Are there any fish left in the sea ?” 

“ Oh, I left some. Besides, I wasn’t fishing ” 

“ Oh, I thought you said ” 

“ I wasn’t fishing all the time, I was going to say.” 

“ I see. But all the same you were too busy — Oh, I 
know — ” and she clasped her hands gratefully, “ you 
have made a start on the boat ” 

“ No, I haven’t,” he said, with just a suspicion of an- 
noyance in his tone, as of one who deprecates further 
questioning on a subject which is not altogether new or 
pleasant. 

The charming head in front of him nodded six times 
slowly, and as the eyes were not looking his way, but 
were fixed on something a very long way off, he stole a 
straight look at her, and noted that the round firm little 
chin was slightly squared by a half petulant twist of the 
curving lips, and he made haste to add, “ But I’ve got 
all the planks I want, and 111 lay the keel to-morrow.” 

“ Or the next day, or the day after that, or some other 
day,” she said; “ I’m afraid I shall have to lay that keel 
myself, or we’ll never make a start, and if the boat is 
never started it never will be finished, and we shall have 
to go on living here for ever.” 

Ah ! that was what would have pleased him best of 
all, and lest she should see it in his eyes, he examined 
the clQudless sky with the most careful attention. 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 93 

She was puzzled at the change in him, which her keen 
woman’s eye was quick to note. His simple sailor ways 
had been so delightfully easy and unstrained. In words 
and looks alike he had been the essence of frankness, 
but now in both there were reservations which had 
never been there before, and mightily she wondered 
what they were, and woman-like determined to find out. 
His speech was of the lips and stumbling at that, his 
eyes did not meet hers with the old simple directness, — 
he found it so much easier to talk to her out there on 
the beach in the dark when she was not there, — and his 
manner was constrained and awkward. And how could 
it be otherwise, while the outward man with whom she 
was acquainted was doing its best to maintain the status 
quo of “ Mrs. Roustaine, ” and the inner man. in the heart 
of him, whom she must not on any account be allowed 
to catch a glimpse of, was crying aloud “Alix! Alix! 
Alix!” in a voice so loud and clear that he was amazed 
that she did not hear it, and each moment he feared to 
to see her turn away with eyes full of indignant surprise 
and have nothing more to do with him. 

When he had gone away down to the village that day, 
she sat for awhile with a wrinkle in her smooth white 
brow, and her foot tapping the ground impatiently, and 
when at last she w^as roused from her musing by the 
shouts of little Karl, who came scrambling up the hill 
for his mid-day meal with his shirt in his hand, she said 
to herself with a short surprised laugh, “ Well, well ! I 
am sorry, but I do not think I am to blame,” and rose 
and went to meet her boy. 

And so their intercourse lost somewhat of the charm 
it once possessed for both of them. His friendship she 
valued greatly, but more she could not give him, and 
man-like he could not be satisfied with that but wanted 
everything. And she saw it working in him, and grow- 
ing in him, and was powerless to stay it, and could only 
wait and hope and trust in the simple innate goodness 
of the man, that when the blow fell he might meet it 
like a man, and rise superior. 

Her own hopes and keen desire she never ceased to 
urge upon him by perpetual questionings as to the 


94 A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 

building of the boat, but it seemed to her sometimes as 
though every rib was laid and every plank was fixed 
only as the result of her own incessant importunings, 
and that the progress of the work was very, very slow. 

And truly if it had been left entirely to Captain Gil- 
lies, that boat never would have been completed. 

V/ith a knowledge of mankind which must have been 
instinctive, Alix took to coming down to the beach 
to v/atch the progress of the work, and to offer her as- 
sistance, to fetch and carry for him, and to drop words 
of commendation on his skill and industry. He enjoyed 
the camaraderie of her presence, and her words were 
spurs and honey to him, but he looked forward with 
gloomy anticipation to the day when the boat wotild be 
finished, and if time spent on work was any criterion of 
efficiency, his building was for all time if not for eter- 
nity. 

The slow growth of that boat seemed to Alix absol- 
utely marvellous, if not supernatural, and when, one 
evening, contrary to her custom, she strolled down to 
the beach, chiding herself as a harbourer of unworthy 
suspicions, she found that she had been doing herself an 
injustice, and that her doubts as to the bona Jides of the 
captain’s zeal in well doing were more than justified. A 
gentle tap- tapping in the direction of the shipyard drew 
her in that direction. His back was towards her. She 
stood just behind him, and to her surprise saw a plank, 
which had been well and truly fixed in its proper place 
that very day, levered slowly therefrom, inch by inch, 
and with as little noise as possible, and finally dropped 
down on to the sand. 

Her first feeling was one of anger at his duplicity, and 
her first idea to charge him with it on the spot. Then 
on second thoughts she crept noiselessly away in the 
dark with flushing cheeks, and imder-lip tight bitten to 
keep from laughter. 

While superintending operations next day, she enjoyed 
herself exceedingly. 

“ How very, very slowly we get on. Captain Gillies,” 
she said. 

** You can’t be too particular when you’re building a 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 95 

boat,” he replied, “ your life may depend on the sound- 
ness of your work.” 

“ And if you found anything wrong, I suppose you’d 
have to undo it, and do it all over again ?” she asked as 
ingenuously as a child. 

“ Certainly,” he said, with a quick glance at her. 

“ But you are so very careful, Captain, you’ve never 
had to do a single thing over again, have you ?” 

“ Well, I don’t know that I could quite say that,” he 
said, and he drove a bolt home with a vehemence that 
brought the colour into his face, and after a pause he 
added, “ We’re all of us liable to make mistakes, you 
know,” and she wondered if he meant anything by that 
remark. 

“ But you are so very careful. It seems to me that 
you think out the position of every plank and then nail 
it down so tight, that I don’t believe you could get it off 
again if you wanted to.” 

He shot another quick look at her, and went on with 
his hammering without speaking. 

Presently her silence drew his eyes to her again. She 
made a very charming picture sitting there in the sand, 
with a great tremulous green leaf in one hand to keep 
off the sun, which filtered through it in golden bars and 
bronzed the silken coils of her hair. He noticed that 
the pretty little chin was shot slightly forward, and con- 
veyed to him an expression of chagrin, and her eyes 
were fixed intently on the plank he had just been fast- 
ening down. 

She looked such a tempting morsel sitting there in the 
sand, with her delicate white skin pulsing with life and 
colour, her great dark eyes shining out from under the 
soft arching brows, and the great soft coils of black hair 
above, that he could scarce hold himself back from 
going up to her and saying, “ Let me knock it all to 
pieces, and we will live here and die here together.” 

He looked at her more than once, and he was sorely 
drawn towards her. But, tempting as she might look as 
a whole, there was a certain aggressive “ Hands off ” 
look about the little chin which made him hesitate and 
lose. 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 


96 


“ What’s the matter ?” he asked lamely, as the silence 
became oppressive, “ See an5^hing wrong ?” 

“ Am I awake, Captain ?” 

“ Wide awake, I should say,” he said staring at her. 

“ Have I been to sleep sitting here ?” 

“ Not to my knowledge. Why ?” 

“ Did I sit here like this yesterday ?” 

“ You did.” 

“ And watch you nailing on planks just as I am doing 
now ?” 

“ You did. Why ?” 

“ I could have sworn that I saw you nail that plank on 
yesterday, — the one you are at now; — I remember that 
knot that looks like a cat’s face or a pansy. But if you 
nailed it on yesterday, how can you be nailing it on to- 
day ? I must surely have fallen asleep since you began 
nailing it, and dreamt that I saw you do it yesterday. 
It’s curious, isn’t it ?” 

^■e was nonplussed for a mome it. Then, 

“ Double action of the brain,” he said. “ I have heard 
of that kind of thing before.” 

“ Really!” she said with mock receptivity. 

“ Yes, one half of the brain acts sometimes a second 
or so in advance of the other half, and that gives one the 
impression of having gone through exactly the same ex- 
perience at some previous time.” 

“ Really! How very interesting! And that is called 
double action of the brain ?” 

“ Something like that.” 

“ I wonder,” she said, musingly, “ what name they 
would give to the double action of Captain Gillies ? Oh, 
Captain, Captain! No wonder the boat got on slowly 
when you undid in the night what you had done in the 
day! Now, sir, what have you got to say for yourself ?” 

He faced her with his tools in his hand and stood be- 
fore her speechless for a moment, then he dropped every- 
thing and strode boldly up to her. 

“ I could not help it,” he said vehemently, “ I hate the 
boat, and the thought of the end it will bring in either 
case. I have been tempted sometimes to burn it and 
every plank there is on th^ island.” 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 97 

But you won’t do it, Captain!” she said, eyeing him 
steadily. 

“ No, I suppose I won’t do it,” he replied gloomily; 
“ that wouldn’t give me what I want. I could keep you 
here, but that’s no use if you can’t think of me as I want 
you to think.” 

He looked at her half hopelessly. It was the first time 
they had ever openly approached the subject. 

In reply to the unvoiced question in his look she shook 
her head gravely and decisively. 

“ No chance ?” he asked huskily. 

“ No chance,” she said quietly, and would have said 
more to soften her refusal to him, but he turned abruptly 
on his heel and strode away round the base of the south- 
ern hill, and the glimpse she got of his face showed it to 
her knotted and twisted, and his hands were tightly 
clenched. 

The sudden dashing of long- cherished secret hopes 
puts the gold, hay stubble in a man to the test as 
sharply and decisively as anything in this life can do, 
and like a wounded stag Captain Gillies went away into 
solitude to fight his battle, and to find out what he was 
made of. 

For three days no one saw anything of him, and Alix 
began to fear some bodily harm had come to him, and 
when, on the fourth day, there came floating up the hill- 
side the tap-tap of the hammer on the planking of the 
boat, her heart gave a great leap of thankfulness, and it 
seemed to her just then that she had never heard any 
sound which gave her greater pleasure. 

She could not bring herself to go down to the beach 
yet, however, but she walked along the hillside till she 
could see him at work on the boat, and as she watched 
the strong arm swinging the big hammer in steady 
rhythmic strokes, she was perhaps nearer to liking him 
very much than ever she had been before. But between 
liking and loving there is a great gulf fixed, and though 
they are close alongside one another, the crossing is dif- 
ficult and is but rarely accomplished. 

He did not come up to see her that day, nor all through 


A Man, a Woman and a boat. 

the next, until the evening, but instead worked hard on 
the boat. 

But towards sunset he dropped his tools, and plunged 
him in the sea on the other side of the spit, and then 
climbed the hill to her house with the water still in his 
hair. 

Her one quick anxious glance at him confirmed the 
good news of the hammer-strokes. 

“ Won’t you come and see how the boat’s getting on, 
Mrs. Roustaine ?” he asked cheerily, and his eyes met 
hers clear and bright, but with just the shadow of the 
necessity of compulsion in them. 

She stretched out a warmly welcoming hand to him. 
He took it in his, and as his pulse felt the hot life leaping 
through hers, for one moment the full knowledge of his 
loss smote him sick and dizzy. He clutched the little 
hand convulsively, and then bent over and kissed it. 

“ My dearest friend,” she said, “ you cannot know how 
glad I am to see you back again, and at work.” 

“ Come along and see how the work is getting on,” he 
said ; and together they went down the hillside. 

The boat had made more progress in the last two days 
than two weeks had shewn in it before. 

“ Ah ! now we are going ahead,” said Alix. “ It is be- 
ginning to look something like a boat now.” 

That was perhaps about as much as could be said for 
it. On land, at all events, it was a great unwieldy bulk, 
whatever it might look like afloat, with straight up and 
down stem and stern and considerable size amidships, — 
a roomy craft, as considerations of comfort and decency 
necessitated, when it had to accommodate two women 
and a man and a child for probably fourteen days at 
least, with all the necessary provisions — and almost cer- 
tainly a slow craft, no matter how favourable the winds; 
but solid and safe as Captain Gillies knew how to makpit. 

“ I never built a boat before,” he said, “ and if this one 
carries us safely across, I shall take out a patent for it, 
I think. It’s built solid, anyhow, though 1 doubt if it 
would win a prize in a regatta.” 

“ And when will it be ready to launch ?” she asked. 

“ It’ll be a month at least before it’s ready for use. I 


A MAN, A WOMAN AND A BOAT. 99 

Want to deck it all but a cock-pit. Then there’s the rig- 
ging. About a month will do it, I think.” 

“ What shall we call it ?” she said. 

“ The Princess Alix.” 

“ No, not that, please! Call it the ‘ Karl.’ ” 

“ It’s about his shape, isn’t it ?” he said, thinking of 
the small boy. “ He’ll be sorry to leave Raataua,” he 
said a little wistfully; “ I doubt if he’ll ever find life quite 
so pleasant anywhere else. I never saw such absolute 
thorough enjoyment. He seems always almost burst- 
ing with the joy of living.” 

“ Yes, I am thankful he keejos so well and happy. But 
you wouldn’t expect me to be satisfied to have him grow 
up half a savage ?” 

“ No fear of that,” he said with a glance at her own 
clear-cut, high-bred face. 

“ He has a right to a proper education to enable him 
to take his proper place in life, and he can’t get that 
here. He actually talks Raatauan better than I do.” 

“No wonder, with all those naked black kiddies yelling it 
in his ears all daylong. Well then we’ll call it the ‘ Karl,’ 
and try and get it launched by a month from to-day.” 

At first the islanders had taken great interest in the 
building of the boat, and had wanted to help with the 
tools, which still possessed the greatest fascination for 
them, though they had had some little experience of them 
in Tiaki s time. But with all their assistance the build- 
ing would have progressed far too rapidly, and their 
own sojourn on the island would have been shortened’ ' 
by just so much, and Gillies discouraged their efforts, 
and by degrees they got into the way of leaving him to 
himself, and of only coming round in the evenings to 
criticize and to marvel at the slow progress that was be- 
ing made. Now, however, that the boat was beginning 
to look something like a boat, their interest revived, and 
they were keen to see its performance in the water, and 
the captain’s open-air workshop on the sands became 
once more the meeting-place and centre of all the life 
of the island. 

And now the work went forward rapidly. There was 
no holding back and no double action, and within the 


100 


OVER THE sea WITH A SAILOR. 


month, and as nearly as possible just eight months after 
the great storm/* The Karl ” was safely launched and 
towed out to quiet anchorage, ready for her masts and 
rigging which lay out on the shore all ready for her. 

The most that even her proud constructor could say 
of her as she lay out in the bay was that she looked safe 
and comfortable. The extremest flattery after straining 
every point in her favour, could not have called her 
handsome. But she was sound built and roomy, an 
looked capable of doing what was required of her, and 
to Alix she was a very ark of safety, a golden argosy 
which should carry herself and her boy back to civiliza- 
tion, and afford him the chance of taking his rightful 
place among his fellows in the great world. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

OVER THE SEA WITH A SAILOR. 

And so at last the day came for them to start on their 
adventurous voyage of over a thousand miles to the Mar- 
quesas. 

Everything that experience and foresight could com- 
mand for the safety and comfort of the passengers had 
been seen to, with the most anxious and detailed care, 
and most fortunately a considerable stock of the ship’s 
supplies from the schooner and the brig still lay un- 
touched. While fresh fruit and flsh could be had in 
abundance on the island, tinned ship’s provisions had 
offered no strong temptations to them. Now they came 
in most providentially, and supplemented by a big sup- 
ply of cocoanuts, and of fruits not fully matured, and 
which were intended to ripen on the voyage, there was 
no possible chance of the wayfarers coming to want. 
There were two good sized butts from the Princess Alix 
filled with the sweet island water, and Captain Gillies 
had even fixed in the little cabin the small oil cooking 


OVER THE SEA WITH A SAILOR. 


10 ! 


Stove which had been used on the schooner to supple- 
ment the galley at times. 

He had a small compass of his own, fortunately, for 
the ships’ compasses had all been utterly disorganized by 
the rough treatment of the storm. 

And so the hour had come, and all the islanders stood 
on the beach to see the last of the papalangi — the white 
friends from afar whom they loved, and from whom, if 
any choice had been left to them, they would have 
wished never to be parted. Illo and Nita stood, the 
centre of a crescent-shaped throng of their people, down- 
cast and despondent at their approaching loss. They 
had made no attempt even by argument to thwart their 
friends’ wishes. Illo, from his experiences abroad, knew 
too well what small attraction his remote island, beauti- 
ful though it was, could offer to those accustomed all 
their lives to the wider world outside. The women 
wailed a mournful farewell. The swarm of naked 
youngsters trotted about the beach waving their arms 
and shrieking last words to their little playmate, who sat 
sturdily on the deck of his namesake and waved his 
hands in reply. On the whole he rather enjoyed the 
novelty of the new departure, knowing nothing of the 
trammels of a more civilized childhood, or the risks of 
the voyage. 

Captain Gillies hauled up his anchor and hoisted jib 
and mainsail, and with a final outburst of farewells, the 
little ship caught the breeze and drew out round the 
point of the spit. Their dusky friends on the beach 
passed out of their sight for ever, and Alix sank down 
with a sigh of mingled regret and content. 

“ Now we are really and truly off,” she said. 

“ May the end of the voyage be as fortunate as the 
beginning,” said Captain Gillies. 

The two hills mingled into one, the outline became 
blurred and indistinct, faded into a cloud-like cone, and 
sank out of sight. Then suddenly to Alix their little ark 
appeared smaller than ever it had done before, an infin- 
itesimal dot, the slowly moving centre of the mighty 
circle of blue sea and bluer sky, somewhere on.the outer 
rim of which in due time, if all went well, would rise 


102 


OVER THE SEA WITH A SAILOR. 


other tiny beckoning cones, telling them that the risks 
v/ere past, the voyage over, and that here at last was 
their much desired haven. 

Providence, holding in its hand for some of them fa- 
vours beyond their wildest imaginings, favoured them. 
Their voyage was a gently gliding royal progress through 
seas of rolling molten gold by day and swelling, shimmer- 
ing silver by night, beneath skies that flamed at dawn 
and dusk with colourings so gorgeous and mingled and 
blended after fashions so lavish and so daring, so terri- 
fying, indeed, at times, that none but the Master Hand 
might venture them. It looked indeed as though here, 
in this great wide workshop, far from human ken, the 
Master Painter tried his wildest schemes of colour, before 
offering them, toned and tempered, to the inappreciation 
of a world whose mind was fixed on other things. 

So, day by day, with winds that helped and never once 
hindered, the “ Karl ” forged slowly towards the prom- 
ised land, and on the seventeenth day of their journey- 
ing Captain Gillies standing on the forward deck, while 
Alix held the helm, felt his heart leap into his throat in 
a tumult of sorrow and of joy, as there rose away on the 
south-western rim of the circle a something that was not 
a cloud and he knew that their journey was nearing its 
end. 

How gladly would he have gone on sailing with this 
sweetest of women and her beautiful boy for ever and 
for ever ! But that could not be, and never once since he 
had known the certainty of her heart had he, by word or 
by look to herself, reverted to the subject. 

Of his own thoughts towards her, and the way his eyes 
followed her every movement when she could not see 
them, what need to tell? Was he not a man and she one 
of the most beautiful of God’s creatures? 

However, thank God, he was a man and a true man, 
and he acted up to the level of his high estate. 

For a few moments he stood silent. It was hard to 
say the word that would bring the glad light springing 
into her eyes that would be as the severance of the first 
strand of the frail thread which for the moment linked 
their two lives together,' 


OVER THE SEA WITH A SAILOR. 


103 

She sat looking dreamily out over the wide blue spread 
of the sea. Little Karl was lying asleep in the little 
cabin. Leona was drowsing at Alix’s feet in the little 
cockpit. 

Yes, he would have liked to go sailing on like this for 
ever. But as that was out of question he turned and 
said quietly, 

“ There is the land, Mrs. Roustaine.” 

“Land! Oh, where? Leona! Karlchen! Land!” 
and she jumped up with shining eyes and flushed face. 

“ Climb up here,” he said, as the boat broached to at 
her releasing of the tiller. “ And I will see to the helm. 
Now look straight ahead over the bows.” 

“ I see it ! I see it !” she cried, with a glad clap of the 
hands. “ See Karl, Leona, right there. Can’t you see 
it?” 

“ I see somefing,” said Karl, rubbing the sleep out of 
his eyes. “ What is it, Mummy?” 

“ It is land, my boy. It is home and England and 
civilization and education and the beginning of life 
again. ” 

And Gillies in the stern sighed within himself and 
wished with all his heart that she could have been con- 
tent with less. 

Next day they ran in among the outlying sentinels of 
rock, leaving Uahuga to port, and so reached Nukahiva. 
But the harbour was empty, and after a two days’ rest 
they went on to Hiwaoa. There they had no better luck, 
and after waiting patiently for a week, — 

“ It is no good stopping here,” said Gillies, “ we will 
go on to the Paumotus. It is possible we may And a ship 
there to take us on,” and he was glad of the respite from 
the approaching separation. For Alix must get to Val- 
paraiso, her base of supplies, and he had decided to 
work through to Sydney as offering better openings than 
Chile. 

But they found the Paumotus as bare of ships as the 
Marquesas, so after trying in vain all the larger islands, 
they decided to waste no more time, and laid their course 
for Tahiti. 

Here, indeed, they found ships, but none that were 


104 OVER THE SEA WITH A SAILOR. 

any use to them. They were whalers mostly, and all 
outward bound, and nothing could induce them to turn 
from their quest ; and at last, after weeks of unavailing 
attempts. Captain Gillies mooted the bold idea of carry- 
ing the “ Karl ” right through the islands as far as Syd- 
ney itself. There Alix would be able to raise sufficient 
funds on the drafts which were among her husband’s 
papers to procure passages to Valparaiso: or, if neces- 
sary, she could obtain remittances by cable from her so- 
li citers in England, or in the last extremity, if no vessel 
for Chile was available, she could even charter a small 
trader for the voyage, since she deemed it absolutely 
necessary to proceed first to Valparaiso before returning 
to England. 

After full discussion of the possibilities, this was fin- 
ally decided on. From Tahiti they passed to Rarotonga, 
thence to the Friendly Islands, so to Fiji, where they 
were received with the warmest of welcomes by the 
Governor, who laid himself out to the utmost to further 
their desires, but could not accomplish the procuring of 
a ship which was not there, or in default thereof the 
building of one. 

The Governor and his amiable wife took the greatest 
interest in the wayfarers, and their stay in Fiji went no 
small way towards making their long wanderings in 
their little home-made ship a fragrant and delightful 
memory. 

But no ship of any service to Alix turned up, and at 
last they bade adieu to friendly Fiji, and, touching for 
supplies at Aneitium in the Loyalty Isles, they left New 
Caledonia to the north and struck straight for Sydney, 
and sailed in between the Heads and up Port Jackson 
Harbour and into Sydney Cove, one fine day, as nearly 
as possible four months from the time of their leaving 
Raataua and just twelve months from the time of the 
great catastrophe which stranded them there. 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 


105 


CHAPTER XV. 

FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 

They drew in to Circular Quay under the critical sur- 
vey of a group of Custom House officers, one of whom 
hailed them as they came along. 

Hello there ! what kind of a craft do you call that, 
and where do you hail from ?” 

“ From Raataua,” said Gillies with a smile. 

“ Eh ? Where’s that ?” 

“ A thousand miles north-east of the Marquesas, — un- 
chartered.” 

“ Come all the way in that ?” 

“ Yes, built it myself. Wrecked there twelve months 
ago.” 

“ My soul ! and are you all the crew ?” 

“ I’m crew and captain too. These are my passen- 
gers.” 

“ Come all the way with you ?” 

“ Come all the way.” 

A crowd had gathered round to see the strange craft, 
and their eyes hung out with wonder at sight of these 
remarkable travellers. Little Karl with one arm round 
the mast, gave them back stare for stare, for he had 
never seen so wonderful a city as this, nor so many 
white faces all together before. 

Here an energetic young man came bustling through 
the crowd. 

“ Hello, Johnson, what’s up here ? Man overboard ? 
’Nother opium haul, or what have you got hold of this 
time ?” 

“ You’d better come and see, an’ don’t try an’ be quite 
so funny, or maybe — ” 

“ Don’t ruffle your hair, man. I make mistakes my- 
self sometimes. What’s this, — contraband ?” 

“ Castaways from t’other side of nowhere,” said the 
Custom’s man sulkily. 

“ That’s mine,” said the energetic young man, whip- 


I06 FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 

ping out a note-book. “ Special to the ‘ News.’ Now, 
sir,” — with his hat on the back of his head and his eyes 
dancing, and his pencil twirling eagerly, — “ Let’s have 
the story.” 

“ Suppose you let us get ashore,” said Gillies, good 
humouredly. “ We’ve been over four months in this 
boat, and we’re beginning to get cramps in our legs.” 

“ Four months!” and the pencil made a hieroglyphic 
or two, as his eyes swept rapidly over the boat and its 
occupants. “ Sakes alive! you must need stretching. 
Where did you start from ?” 

“ Look here, my friend,” said the captain, “ when 
we’ve got comfortably fixed in a nice quiet hotel and 
have had a civilised square meal, you can come and ask 
any questions you like. Till then we’re dumb and deaf.” 

“ Right you are! I’ll see you fixed up. It’s under- 
stood you keep it all for me, — honour bright!” 

“ You can have it all if it’s any use to you,” said Gil- 
lies, smiling at the impetuosity which had such a novel 
ring of civilisation in it. 

Alix and Leona had been gathering together their 
scanty luggage, and now, leaving the boat in charge of 
the Customs’ officers, they all followed the ‘ News ’ man 
through a lane of curious faces, and got into a cab. He 
climbed up outside by the driver, and drove away with 
them as his lawful prey, to be served up with his own 
fancy frillings for the delectation of his readers the next 
morning. 

tiowever, he served them well. He conveyed them 
to a semiprivate hotel in Pitt Street, and impressed the 
landlord with a due sense of the necessity of making 
them comfortable, and then, having given them a couple 
of hours’ grace while he kept watch and ward down- 
stairs, lest any prowling scout from a hostile camp should 
scent blood and come trespassing on his preserves he 
introduced himself again as Richard Savage, Shipping 
Reporter of the Sydney Morning News^ and intimated 
with his pencil sharpened at both ends and his note- 
book gaping hungrily, that now he was ready for busi- 
ness if they were. Bit by bit he drew from them all 
the salient points of their story, and enjoyed himself 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. TO/ 

extremely, for this was an exceeding slice of luck, and 
meant a feather in his cap and money in his pocket. 

When he had got all they chose to tell him, he heaved 
a great sigh of gratitude. 

“ You won’t be going out this evening,” he suggested. 
“ After all that travelling nice soft beds’ll feel awfully 
jolly, and the sooner you get them the better.” 

Gillies laughed. “ Oh, I think we might just have a 
stroll to show Mrs. Roustaine what Sydney is like.” 

“ It would do just as well to-morrow,” pleaded Savage, 
“ you’ll have lots of time, and there’s nothing to see any- 
how. And, besides, see, the little chap’s eyes are begin- 
ning to close already. Better al! of you turn in early 
to-night, and you’ll enjoy it all the more in the morn- 
ing.” 

“ Can you put me in the way of telegraphing to Val- 
paraiso, Mr. Savage ?” asked Alix anxiously. 

“ H’m — Valparaiso ? — roundabout — but anything that 
can be done, we can do.” 

“ London might do. I must procure funds from my 
bankers in one or other of those places.” 

“ London’s easy as winking. Say, Captain Gillies, I’ll 
tell you what I’ll do. You promise me to keep all this 
absolutely mum, ’cept to me, and I’ll bring down our 
governor to see you to-morrow. He’s a rare old cock, 
and game to give you any assistance you want, of any 
kind, shape or form. He’ll make everything as easy for 
you as falling down stairs. This is a snap for me, and 
I do want to keep it. I’ll have our artist down to the 
boat in the morning and work it all up in grand style for 
this Vv^eek’s ‘ Mail.’ Now do promise, there’s a good fel- 
low. Say, couldn’t I get all your photos taken to-mor- 
row ? and I’d like to work in a chart of your voyage 
too. Oh, I can see my way to make something out of 
all this. Now won’t you promise ? Do ask him to, for 
my sake, Mrs. Roustaine.” 

Gillies knew the standing of the Sydney Morning News^ 
and saw prospective advantages, so he laughingly prom- 
ised all he wanted except the photographs of anyone be- 
sides himself, as Alix he knew would object; and Mr. 
Richard Savage clapped his hat on his head, bade them 


io8 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 


an affectionate farewell, and sped away in the highest of 
spirits. 

Master Savage must have worked hard all through 
the night and right up to the time the paper went to press, 
for The News next morning contained nearly three col- 
umns of their adventures, worked up in most fanciful f 
style, and Captain Gillies read it over the breakfast 
table with immense enjoyment. 

They had hardly finished breakfast when the maid 
intimated to the captain that a gentleman was waiting 
to see him. Supposing it was Savage again. Gillies went 
downstairs to the coffee room. It was not Savage, how- 
ever, but another young man of much the same type but 
lacking something of Savage’s easy breeziness. 

“You Captain Gillies ?” snapped out the young man 
as the captain entered the room. 

“ Yes, I’m Captain Gillies.’’ 

“ I want just a few more particulars of this remarkable 
voyage of yours. Captain. And no doubt you’d like to 
correct some of the statements in The News. Very slap- 
dash account they give of the matter. Perhaps you 
haven’t seen it ? Here’s a copy ” 

“ Oh yes. I’ve seen it, thanks. It is practically all 
right, and I’ve nothing to correct or add to it.” 

“ Oh, come ! you can give me one or two new points 
surely, Captain. Fair play, you know, and all that. 
Why should The News have an absolute monopoly, and 
all the rest of us go bare ?” 

“ Well, chiefly because they got hold of us first, you 
see.” 

“ Pure piece of luck for Dick Savage,” grumbled the 
other. “ We’d have made just as much of you if we’d 
happened to be on the spot just when you came in.” 

Here Master Dick Savage himself came hurriedly into 
the coffee room with an elderly gentleman in tow. 
Savage scowled when he saw the other reporter, and 
glanced enquiringly at Gillies. 

“ Morning, Dick,” said the other, “ early bird, you 
know, and all that. Well, I’m very much obliged to 
you. Captain Gillies, for your courtesy. Good morning ! 


1 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 1 09 

By- by, Dick! See you later 1” And lie sailed away with 
a triumphant grin at Savage’s despondent face. 

“ Who’s that ?” asked the elderly gentleman. 

“ Tanner of the Herald. You promised not to give 
yourself away to anyone else, Captain. Ah ! excuse me, 
this is my chief, Mr. Staite.” 

Gillies bowed and said laughingly, “ I had just told 
that young man that I had nothing to tell him beyond 
what appeared in The News. He can’t make much out 
of that, I should say.” 

“ Ah ! you don’t know Tanner,” said Savage, “ I bet 
he’ll make close on a column — personal description and 
so on.” 

“ He’ll be a clever man if he can make five lines out 
of what I said to him,” said Gillies. 

But Tanner made a column all the same. 

“ I’ve come to see if I can be of any service to you. Cap- 
tain Gillies,” said Mr. Staite. “ Savage here said some- 
thing about your wanting to cable home for funds. We 
shall be glad to be of service to you in that respect, or 
any other.” 

“ I will introduce you to Mrs. Roustaine,” said Gillies. 
“ Then she can tell you just what she wants.” 

He led them upstairs to the sitting room, and Savage, 
greeting Alix like an old friend, introduced his chief, and 
then regarded him with a look that plainly said, 

“ Well, sir, did I say a word more than the lady’s looks 
justified ?” 

Mr. Staite was visibly impressed by Alix’s appear- 
ance. 

“ You have had an extraordinary experience, Mrs. 
Roustaine,” he said, “ but you don’t seem any the worse 
for it.* By the way, I think I must have met your hus- 
band. He was here some six or seven years ago want- 
ing to attempt a journey across to the West Coast. But 
it was simple madness and certain death, and we dis- 
suaded him from it. And hard work it was too. I re- 
member him perfectly, a tall, fine-looking man, with 
dark hair just frosting at the sides.” 

♦‘Ah! th^t would be my father/’ said AHj^; “my 


no FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 

cousin whom I married, bore the same name, Charles 
Roust aine.” 

“ Dear me ! so that was your father ? We were all very 
much struck with him. A born traveller he was too. 
Couldn’t be happy unless he was trying to do something 
that nobody else had succeeded in doing. Where is he 
now ?” 

“ He was killed on the Upper Parafion, among the 
head waters of the Amazon. We were captured by the 
natives and he was wounded.” 

“ You were there too ?” 

“ Yes, it was there I met my husband.” 

“ Why, you’re almost as much of a traveller as your 
father.” 

“ It’s in us and we can’t help it. I sometimes think 
we would be happier if we could settle down quietly like 
other people. But it’s in the blood, and whenever it 
crops out, we have to give it its way.” 

“ Well, I should think you will have had enough to 
last your lifetime anyhow.” 

“ I don’t know,” she said somewhat despondently, 
“ but in any case I have some more travelling to do be- 
fore I can attempt to settle down. I want to get to Val- 
paraiso. My husband’s money is all invested there, and 
my own is in London.” 

“ I see. You were talking of cabling to one place or 
the other. London will of course be the easiest and 
quickest. If you will give me particulars of what you 
want, I will see to it.” 

She had it all down on paper all ready for him, and 
her explanations were brief and business-like. 

, “ My solicitors are Beltons of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 

No. 99. They had my instructions from Valparaiso 
to invest all my father’s money in Consols, and they 
hold my power of attorney. I want them to send me 
£200 to enable me to get to Valparaiso, where I can get 
all I want from my late husband’s bankers.” 

“ I will see to it at once. I will cable in your name 
direct to the solicitors, and will cable also to my own 
pffice in London telling them to call on the solicitors 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. 


1 1 1 

confirm the matter. I should make it ;;^3oo if I were 
you.” 

“ Oh ?” 

“ You don’t know quite how you may find things in 
Valparaiso. Matters have been unsettled there lately, 
and it would be very awkward to get there and find your- 
self short of funds.” 

“ Yes, that would be very unpleasant. By all means 
make it ^ 300 , Mr. Staite.” 

“ I will cable at once.” 

“ That is very good of you. I wonder if you can get 
me any information as to a ship for Valparaiso ?” 

“ Savage, that’s your line. Any ships loading for Val- 
paraiso or any South American ports ?” 

“ There are one or two foreigners,” said Savage pon- 
dering, “ and yes, there’s a Bristol ship, the ‘ Mary Jane,’ 
for Valparaiso, with coals. I don’t know if she carries 
passengers though.” 

“ She’ll do,” said Mr. Staite, “ I shouldn’t choose a 
foreigner. Do you know the captain of the ‘ Mary 
Jane ?’ ” 

“ Yes, he’s all right — round as a tub and square as 
they make ’em. Name of Owens — Owen Owens — 
Welshman, I suppose.” 

“ That sounds as if it would do very nicely,” said 
Alix. “ Do you know when she sails, Mr. Savage ?” 

“ End of the week, I should say, she’s nearly full. I’ll 
find out all about her, and if they can take you.” 

“ By the way, Mrs. Roustaine,” said Mr. Staite, “ my 
wife and daughters begged me to obtain permission for 
them to call upon you.” 

That was not quite how Mrs. Staite had put it. What 
she actually had said as Mr. Staite left the house on 
Murray Hill that morning was “ Jim, if this Island wo- 
man is anything decent, you might bring her up on Fri- 
day — ” on which day Mrs. Staite was giving a garden 
party. 

But the “ Island woman ” had turned out such a very 
different kind of person to what he expected, that Mr. 
Staite thought well to re-model his message in accordance 
with the actual and very charming facts of the case. 


1 12 FALLEN AMONG FRIELM^S. 

“ That is very kind of Mrs. Staite,” said Alix hesita- 
tingly, “ We are going out shopping in a few minutes, 
and I expect it will take us most of to-day and to-mor- 
row to make up our lee-way in that respect, as Captain 
Gillies would say.” 

“ Then on Thursday,” said Mr. Staite. 

“ If the ‘ Mary Jane ’ doesn’t sail before then,” said 
Alix smiling. “ When may we expect a reply from 
London ?” 

“ By to-morrow morning certain,” he said. “ Savage, 
my boy, you give Mrs. Roustaine any points she wants 
as to where to do her shopping, or if you can spare the 
time pilot her round yourself.” Which Master Richard 
Savage was nothing loath to do, for, as he said to himself, 
though he would not have dared to say it in print, there 
wasn’t a woman in Sydney to compare with her in good 
looks and charm and grace of manner. 

Savage ordered a cab and personally conducted Alix 
to it, followed by Leona and little Karl, and got in with 
them after giving the driver his directions. Tanner of 
the Herald was loitering in the little hallway of the hotel, 
and devoured the party with comprehensive glances full 
of prospective “ copy ” as they passed, and paid no more 
heed to Dick Savage’s angry scowl at his impudence than 
Dick himself would have done had the positions been 
reversed. 

Dick enjoyed his shopping expedition more than he 
would have believed it possible, though at most of the 
shops he was ordered to wait in the cab, as the articles 
to be purchased were considered to be quite outside his 
range. And when, on approaching one of the shops, he 
had naively enquired, “ Now what is it you want here ?” 
Alix had demurely answered “ Tablecloths ” and had 
gone inside leaving him wondering what on earth she 
was buying tablecloths for, unless it was that she sus- 
pected the “ Mary Jane ” might be innocent of such 
things. Then, as he waited, his eyes happened to rove 
over the articles of feminine apparel in the window, and 
he gave a great guffaw of enjoyment, and when they 
came out he asked no more questions. 

As they wer^ driving back to fh^ hotel a,n officer with 


FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS. II3 

an orderly behind him came cantering ont of their 
street. 

“ Been to leave the Governor’s card or some message 
for Mrs. Roustaine, I’ll bet a dollar. That’s one of his 
aides,” said Savage gaily. 

And when he had safely convoyed his charges through 
a prowling half dozen other reporters, who were gnash- 
ing their teeth and gnawing their moustaches on the 
hotel steps, and whom Dick barely condescended to nod 
to, they found that the officer who had just left had in- 
deed brought a most gracious message of congratulation 
from the Governor of the Colony, and an intimation 
that he would be glad to be of service to Mrs. Rous- 
taine and her party in any way possible, and moreover 
that he hoped shortly to have the pleasure of congratula- 
ting her in person. 

“ It’s Captain Gillies they all ought to congratulate,” 
said Alix. “ It was he who did everything, and brought 
us safely through it all.” 

“ That’s all right,” said Savage, “ but Captain Gillies 
is a man, and after all he only did his duty. And you’re 
a woman, you see, (and, by Gad, the most beautiful 
woman I ever saw in m3^1ife !)” he said to himself, “ and 
it’s a more extraordinary thing for a woman (and such 
a woman !) to come through all that than for a man. 
Why, the whole city’s humming with you, and if the 
women had known you were going to these shops this 
morning, you wouldn’t have been able to get into ’em. 
Oh, I say, Mrs. Roustaine, if our old man’s old woman — 
I mean if Mrs. Staite asks you to go to her garden 
party on Friday, do go, for my sake.” 

“ Oh! and why ?” asked Alix with a smile. 

“ Well, you see, it’s like this. If you say you’ll go, I’m 
pretty sure to get going too. They look upon me as 
kind of responsible for you, you see, since you fell into 
my hands first, and I kept you from being ragged to 
pieces by a dozen other fellows, and made a clean scoop 
of you for the News^ and — and — well, it will all do me 
good, and Gad ! I can stand it about as well as any one 
I know.” 

“ Very well, Mr. Savage, for all your attention and 


114 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


because you kept us from being ragged to pieces by a 
dozen other fellows and made a clean scoop of us for the 
NewSy whatever all that may mean, I’ll go to the gar- 
den-party if I’m asked and if Captain Gillies goes too.’ ’ 

“ It’s awfully good of you,” said the young man, very 
red in the face with his emotions, “ Captain Gillies’ll go 
like a shot. He’s a made man over this business, and 
will get his pick of ships here. Half a dozen firms are 
after him already. And you ‘11 meet the Governor there 
and his wife, awfully nice woman, I believe. They al- 
ways go to Mrs. Stake’s garden parties. Now I’m off 
to secure the Majy Jane^ and if old Owens talks of sail- 
ing before Saturday, I’ll break his neck for him.” 

And off he went with a “ No go, boys ! the show’s over 
for the day. You may all go home and take a holiday,” 
as he passed through the levee of reporters below. 

He was back inside an hour to tell Alix that he had 
“ fixed up matters with old Owens. The Mary Jane 
would not sail till the following Monday. Her captain 
had consented to take them as passengers, and was mak- 
ing arrangements for their comfort, and he, Dick Sav- 
age, had made a special stipulation in the matter of 
tablecloths.” 


CHAPTER XVI. 

EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 

And so everything shaped well for their plans, and 
Alix awaited with equanimity the arrival of news from 
London and the call of Mrs. Stake. 

The second event came off first. For some unknown 
reason the cable reply was delayed, greatly to the per- 
turbation of Alix’s mind. 

Mrs. Stake and her daughters came down on the trav- 
ellers in full force, and were charmed with their ap- 
pearance, which fully bore out all that Mr. Staite had 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


I15 

Said about them. Mrs. Staite tried hard to persuade 
Alix to come up with Karl and Leona to stop the re- 
mainder of her time at the big house on Murray Hill, 
but this, though grateful for the kindliness of the offer, 
she thought best to decline. She, however, promised to 
attend the garden party on the following day, and to 
bring Karl in charge of the owner, and to do her best to 
induce Captain Gillies to bear them company. 

The Captain was a busy man these days. So many 
offers of employment had been made to him, that he 
scarce knew how to pick and choose, but finally, on the 
advice of Dick Savage, endorsed by that of Mr. Staite, 
he closed with an offer from the firm of Ballantyne Bros, 
and accepted the command of a fine 1200-ton ship just 
launched for the San Francisco trade route, and on the 
Friday he turned up at the garden party, looking so 
hearty and handsome in his new rigging and brass but- 
tons and gold-banded cap, that the Governor, in greeting 
and congratulating him, smilingly suggested that the first 
time he himself felt run down, he should seriously con- 
sider the idea of a four or five thousand mile jaunt in a 
half decked boat, if Captain Gillies would take charge of 
her. 

“ Your Excellency must bespeak as good weather as 
we had,” said Gillies modestly, “ and as good company;” 
and his eyes wandered thoughtfully, and a trifle sadly, to 
where Alix was sitting by the Governor’s lady, deep in 
conversation with her, and bearing with high-bred non- 
chalance the critical gaze of a hundred curious eyes. 

She was dressed in a well- fitting tailor-made travelling 
costume. She looked wonderfully handsome, and without 
showing the slightest trace of self-consciousness of the 
fact, she knew it, and it was the knowledge of her own 
good looks and her well-made dress that assisted her no 
little through a somewhat trying ordeal. Most of the 
women were more sumptuously gowned than she, no 
doubt, but their critical glances told them that, quite apart 
from the romantic story attaching to her, not one of them 
could compare for a moment with this quiet dark-eyed 
young lady, either in simple natural beauty, or in a charm 


Il6 EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 

and grace of manner which Her Excellency, the Gover- 
nor’s lady herself could not excel. 

The Governor himself had had a long and interesting 
talk with her. He also had met and remembered her 
father well, and to anyone who could claim that, Alix 
felt her heart warm responsively. Both the Governor 
and his wife pressed upon her the hospitality of Govern- 
ment House, and even tried to persuade her to extend 
her stay for that purpose. But she was set upon getting 
her affairs straightened out as speedily as possible, and 
so she gratefully declined their offers. 

Karl, in a little sailor suit, which assuredly he had 
every right to wear, gazed wonderingly at the gorgeous 
costumes, the like of which he had never dreamed of, and 
longed to cast aside his sailor suit, of which, theoretically 
and as a work of art, he approved, but which practically 
he found hot and confining, and he would willingly have 
discarded it and run about naked as he used to do on the 
island. 

Leona, too, with her swimming dark eyes, and great 
coils of dark hair, from which draped a coquettish black 
lace mantilla, came in for much attention, and added an 
additional foreign touch to the romantic point of view 
from which the little party was regarded. 

Dick Savage was in his glory, and ever afterwards de- 
clared that that garden-party enabled him to get his foot 
on the second rung of the ladder, up which he afterwards 
climbed to the very top. 

But although she bore herself so lightly and easily be- 
fore the multitude, Alix’s heart was anxious and troubled, 
for no reply whatever had been received from London 
to the cables sent three days ago, and she was beginning 
to get nervous as to possible causes for the delay in spite 
of Mr. Stake’s assurances that accidents would occasion- 
ally happen to the best regulated services. He was 
growing anxious too on her account, though he did not 
let her see it, for so far as the cable company was con- 
cerned he knew there was no interruption of communi- 
cations, and that morning he had cabled to his London 
office a terse request for information. The reply came 
late in the evening, close on ten o’clock, and so fully did 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


It; 

Mr. Staite realize Alix’s anxiety in the matter, that he 
drove down at once to her hotel to show her the cypher 
cable and the translation into plain English thereof, 
which was to the effect that the London office of the 
Sydney Morning News had received 300 on Mrs. Rous- 
taine’s account, and requested the head office in Sydney 
to pay that amount to the lady herself, which Mr. Staite 
promised to do as soon as the Bank opened in the morn- 
ing. The cable was silent as to the unaccountable delay, 
but stated enigmatically that letters would follow by next 
mail. 

None of them had the slightest suspicion what lay be- 
hind that unreasonable delay, nor how very near there 
came to being no remittance at all. Long afterwards, 
reviewing the matter and' comparing notes and dates 
with a friend unexpectedly raised up to help her in a 
time of sore need, she got a glimmering notion of the 
probable explanation of the delay. But for the time 
being, with the money in her pocket, her mind was at 
rest. 

Very early on the Monday morning, having bidden 
farewell to all their new friends, and to Captain Gillies, 
who went through the ordeal with his face moulded to 
its most strenuous bad weather aspect ; and to Master 
Dick vSavage, who was absolutely in the dumps for the 
rest of the day and quite beyond being spoken to, the 
travellers boarded the “ Mary Jane,” and that easy-go- 
ing craft leisurely loosed her by no means snowy sails 
and drew slowly out through the Heads and pointed her 
blunt black nose for the South American coast, six thou- 
sand miles away. 

Captain Owen Owens fitted Dick Savage’s description 
to a T. Round he was — of head, and body, and mouth, 
and eye, and possessed of all the comfortable equanimity 
with which Nature endows those to whom has been de- 
nied the somewhat questionable blessing of points and 
angles. And square he was, as you could see by the 
straightforward look of his round blue eye which 
twinkled always and yet was steady as a star. A good 
seaman and a cheerful companion for a long voyage 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


Il8 

where a more assertive man might have become a weari- 
ness to the spirit and an intolerable nuisance. 

Did they w^ant to chat with Captain Owens, Captain 
Owens was there, ready and willing to converse. Did 
they want to leave him alone. Captain Owens was there, 
perfectly happy within the round of his own circumfer- 
ence, and the last man in the world to thrust himself in 
where he was not wanted. 

And like Master, like boat. The “ Mary Jane ” also 
was round and leisurely and easy going, a good sea boat 
but not to be bustled, and maintaining an equilibrium 
very comforting to her passengers, and equal almost to 
the even temper of her Captain. 

So the voyage was a prosperous though a somewhat 
tedious one to all except little Karl, who enjoyed to the 
full every minute of every day, and never tired of climb- 
ing all over the ship, to the nervous apprehension of his 
mother and Leona, who lived in hourly dread of some 
catastrophe that never came, and only felt their minds 
at rest when he was safely tucked up in his bunk and 
sleeping out his watch below. 

But Providence and the Jacks watched over him, and 
bore a helping hand whenever occasion arose, and in 
return he helped them all in their duties, from the cabin 
boy aft and the odd boy forward, to the cook in the gal- 
ley, and the jolly round Captain busy with his noon- 
ings. 

But the longest voyage comes to an end of one kind or 
another, and one dim August morning under the lift of 
the mist their sea- weary eyes rested eagerly for a few 
minutes on a far-away bank of clouds which the Captain 
assured them was the coast of Chile. 

As they were splattering slowly along in the afternoon, 
there suddenly shot out from the haze ahead a long low 
lead- colored craft with two funnels and a venomous un- 
derhung prow which cleft the water like a ploughshare, 
and flung up two great green curls from the furrow in 
which it ran. Its appearance was so sudden and start- 
ling that they were still gazing at it in wonder, when 
with a sharp tinkle of electric signal bells it swept round 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. II9 

Under the stern of the “ Mary Jane,” and came running 
up on her other side in quite unpleasant proximity. 

A loud voice bade them heave to, first in Spanish, then 
in English, and Captain Owens hastened to obey, with 
all the alacrity of the peaceful trader whose cargo and 
papers are all in order, and who has nothing to fear from 
their examination. 

At the same time by way of precaution he ran up the 
British flag, and then awaited events phlegmatically. 

The stranger’s boat was alongside by the time the flag 
broke out at the mast-head, and it caught the eye at 
once of the officer, a tall, dark, keen-faced man, as he 
came up the side. He called up another man from the 
boat, and this one asked at once in English, 

“ What’s your name, where are you from, where to, 
and what do you carry ?” 

“ ‘ Mary Jane ’ of Bristol, from Sydney to Valparaiso 
with coals,” chirped Captain Owen. “ Now what’s all 
this about ? Why, Jim Cook, have you forgotten me ?” 

“ Old Owen Owens, by all the gods!” said the other, 
and then spoke rapidly to the first officer in Spanish. 
Then he turned again to Captain Owens. 

“ We’re having a squabble over here, old man. I 
should rather advise giving Valparaiso a wide berth for 
a time. Everything’s at sixes and sevens, and no know- 
ing how it’ll end.” 

“ Tear, tear!” said Captain Owens. “ You don’t mean 
to say it’s going on yet. I thought it would all be fin- 
ished long ago.” 

“ Not finished yet, but maybe not far off.” 

“ Who are the ladies ?” suddenly asked the other 
officer, peering at Alix and Leona; and Cook repeated 
the question. 

“ Passengers for Valparaiso,” replied the Captain. 

“ Passengers ?” said Cook, and both he and the other 
looked keenly at them, especially at Leona. 

“ But that is a Chilian girl,” said the first officer mth 
suspicion in his voice. 

“ I think we have met. Captain Cook,” said Alix. 
“ You remember Captain Gillies, and I think you met 
my husband, Mr. Roustaine.” 


120 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


“ Good Heavens! Why, Madame, we thought you all 
dead and gone long since. Why, it must be two years 
since Gillies was heard of last. What came to you all ?” 

“ Disaster and misfortune. The schooner was lost 
and all were drowned except Captain Gillies and myself 
and my boy and the maid.” 

“ Dear, dear! that was very bad. And Gillies ?” 

“ He saved our lives and brought us to Sydney. He’s 
got a berth there. Can’t we land at Valparaiso ?” 

“ Oh, you can of course, but — ” he shook his head, — 
“ it’s risky. Things are coming to a head, and if our side 
loses there’ll be the deuce to pay. What do you want 
to go there for ?” 

“ To get some money. My husband’s papers and 
things are all at the bank there.” 

The Chilian, it was Moraga himself, had been getting 
more and more impatient. Now he said a curt word or 
two, then courteously touched his cap and swung down 
into the boat. 

“ Time’s up,” said Captain Cook, “ our dandy little 
‘ Condell ’ there is thirsting for more blood. Did you 
hear we sank the ‘ Blanco Encalada,’ Owens ? Bust her 
sky high with a torpedo, and she went down inside three 
minutes.* Take my advice, Mrs. Roustaine, and if yoii 
go into Valparaiso, get your business done and get away 
out of all this just as quick as you can. Times are bad 
here. Good-bye. Good-bye, old man. If we don’t burst 
ourselves in trying to burst somebody else, we’ll prob- 
ably meet again some time.” 

“ Any of the other side’s ships round here ?” called 
Captain Owens over the side. 

“ Not while the ‘ Condell’s ’ here,” shouted the other 
proudly. “ They’re scared out of their lives.” 

* It was of course the “ Lynch’s ” torpedo which actually sank 
the ^‘Blanco Encalada” in Caldera Harbour. Moraga on the 

Condell ” was in command of the expedition and Captain James 
Cook was his navigating officer. While the warship was firing 
on the Condell,” which had discharged three torpedoes with- 
out effect, Fuentes on the Lynch” crept up on the other side 
and planted his torpedo fair amidships. The ironclad sank in 
three minutes with 245 men on board. 


EN ROUTE ONCE MORE. 


I2I 


All the same, the very next morning, bright and 
early, the insurgent cruisers Cochrane, femeralda and 
Magellanes, conveyed twenty transports into Quinteros, 
not thirty miles away, and landed 10,000 men there, and 
so rang up the curtain on the last scene of all. But 
none of them knew anything at all about it, or assuredly 
Moraga and Cook, and their friend Fuentes on . the 
‘ Lynch,’ would have been reaping a bloody harvest 
among those laden transports, and the naval tacticians 
all the world over would have had some more practical 
illustrations of the value of the torpedo in the hands of 
absolutely fearless men, and it is possible that Alix 
Roustaine would have deemed it advisable to keep clear 
of Valparaiso. 

The ‘ Condell’s ’ bells tinkled like a chiming clock, and 
with a swirl astern, and the great green furrow at her 
forefoot, she disappeared into the haze like a grim grey 
ghost. 

Alix looked anxiously at Captain Owens. He was 
giving orders to the men, and presently he rolled up 
alongside her, placid and smiling as usual. 

“ You will go on. Captain ?” 

“ Oh yes. We are not bellicherents, and they are not 
likely to interfere with us. If there’s any shooting we 
will try to keep outside it. Oh yes, we will go on,” and 
they beat slowly along towards the coast. 

And then out of the grey blank in front arose sud- 
denly a most wonderful and glorious vision. Towering 
aloft in mid air half v^^ay up to heaven was a mighty 
snow-white peak, all aglow with rosy gold, and resting 
apparently on nothing more substantial than rolling 
swathes of dark grey clouds and mist — Aconcagua re- 
luctantly bidding farewell to the sun and holding his 
beams long after all the rest of the world had seen them 
disappear. They saw the shadows chase the golden 
glory up the highest spurs, then for a moment the grand 
white peak looked coldly down on them, and then they 
rounded the southern arm of the horseshoe, and like 
beads of gold on a piece of black velvet the lights of 
Valparaiso lay before them. The bay seemed fairly full 
of shipping, and the ‘ Mary Jane,’ after a challenge frQm, 


22 


INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 


and cautious survey by, another little wasp of a torpedo 
boat, which was on sentry duty, crept up towards the 
other ships, and dropped anchor for the night. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 

Captain Owens went ashore next morning before 
any of his passengers were stirring, to find out for him- 
self just how the land lay. 

“ Well, Captain, how soon can we go ashore ?” asked 
Alix as he came up the side. 

His face was graver than she had yet seen it. 

“ I don’t like the look of things there at all,” he said. 
“ vSomething is going to happen, but what no one seems 
to know. Ha, now! do you hear that ? You’re much 
better on board the ‘ Mary Jane,’ my dear lady, until we 
really know what is going on.” 

The sound of big guns booming furiously away to the 
northeast held them all listening anxiously. 

“ What is it ?” asked Alix, eyeing the shore discon- 
tentedly. “ It all seems quiet enough in the town.” 

“ Quiet enough just now, but if the rebels get into it, 
you’re safer outside. There’s a lot of riff-raff in there 
just aching for mischief and plunder. We shall know 
something later on, and until I consider it safe I can’t let 
you go ashore.” 

There was nothing for it but waiting. The firing 
ceased about midday, but as Captain Owens said, that 
told them nothing as to which side had won. 

“ If our side’s won, — and I call it our side because it’s 
Jim Cook’s side and he’s a good seaman and a straight 
man. I know nothing as to the right or wrong of the 
matter, — if our side’s won, you can go ashore aU right. If 
the other side’s won, tfion you stop Jiero till they cool 
down a bit.” 


INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 


123 


Alix had to acknowledge to herself the common sense 
of what the old man said, and so curbed her impa- 
tience as well as she might. And the day passed, and 
the night, and next morning the big guns were at it again 
as furiously as ever, and very much closer, and now they 
could see as well as hear, for two of the rebel’s cruisers 
were pounding away at Fort Callao, just over the other 
side of the bay, and the whole rebel army was doing its 
best to capture Vina del Mar, whence an easy walk 
would bring them in to Valparaiso. 

But they were beaten off, and at last they gave it up 
and sulkily retired, and that night the town blazed with 
delight at their defeat, and Captain Owens promised 
that if the attack was not renewed in the morning, he 
would let his passengers go ashore. 

And ashore next day he took them, and saw them 
safely to the Gran Hotel Central, and extracted from 
Alix a promise that if, after all, there was trouble in the 
town, she would at once make for the ‘ Mary Jane,’ and 
then went off on his own affairs. 

Leona was in a state of extreme excitement at being 
once more among her own surroundings, and Alix 
started her off at once in quest of her people, who must, 
she was sure, have long since given her up for dead. 

Then, taking little Karl by the hand, she set off her- 
self for the bank, in no little trepidation as to the out- 
come of her visit. 

She had to wait a considerable time before the mana- 
ger could see her, and when at last she was shown into 
his private room, he received her with a look of pre- 
occupied annoyance which did not seem to augur well 
for a very satisfactory interview. But as his keen eyes 
fell on her, a slow light of recognition dawned in them. 

“ Pardon, Senora, I did not at the moment recognise 
the name, but I remember yourself quite well. Why, 
we thought you all dead and gone long since. And how 
is Sefior Roustaine ?” 

“ He is dead,” said Alix quietly. “ The schooner was 
wrecked and all on board were drowned except Captain 
Gillies 


124 


INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 


“Ah! the good Captain Gillies!” said the banker, 
“ him too I remember well.” 

“ Captain Gillies and myself and the boy and my maid 
were the only ones saved. Captain Gillies built a boat 
and carried us all to Sydney, and we arrived here the 
day before yesterday.” 

“ My condolences, Senora, and congratulations on your 
ovm escape. Now how can I serve you ?” 

“ I want to know how my affairs stand, and I want 
my husband’s papers and some money.” 

The banker pulled his moustache and nodded with a 
new wrinkle in his brow. 

“ I will have SeUor Roustaine’s papers brought,” he 
said, touching a bell, and in a few minutes a bundle of 
sealed envelopes was lying on the table before them. 
While Alix broke the seals and began to examine them 
the banker went out to the front office to see what posi- 
tion the current account was in. He came back pres- 
ently with a slip of paper in his hand and found Alix 
sitting with a letter lying on the table before her which 
she had taken from the first envelope she had opened, 
while Master Karl was diligently making impressions of 
the rubber stamp he had discovered on the desk on 
every piece of paper he could find. She raised her head 
as he entered, and he saw that the great dark eyes were 
shining very brightly. The envelope was addressed to 
herself, and she pushed the letter back into it and put 
it into her pocket. 

“ I find,” said the banker, “ that Sefior Roustaine’s 
account is in credit only to the amount of about one 
thousand dollars. Do you remember at all how he in- 
vested his money ?” 

“ I think in Argentine securities,” she replied; “ these 
will probably show us;” and she pointed to the large 
sealed envelopes on the table. 

The banker sat down alongside her in silence, with 
still another wrinkle in his forehead, and they proceeded 
to open the envelopes. They contained scrip of various 
denominations for a very considerable amount, but all 
Argentines, and when the banker had totted up the notes 
he had nj^de of them, he sat eyeing the paper with his 


INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. J25 

lips drawn in and his fingers drumming on the table. 
She was so very charming, she had already suffered so 
much, it was so very hard to have to deal her still an- 
other crushing blow, harder still that it devolved upon 
him to deal it. 

“ You had better sell me a fev/ hundred pounds’ worth 
of these things,” said Alix thoughtfully, “ to carry me to 
England. I have money of my own there, but I shall 
want some to go on with. Which will it be best to 
sell ?” 

“ Sefiora,” said the banker, clearing his throat and 
glooming at the list he held in his hand, and not daring 
to look at her, “it is very pitiful — and I am sorry to 
have to say it — but in the present state of things here 
and in Argentina, these things are not worth more than 
the paper they are printed on. They are practically 
worthless.” 

She sat pale and silent under the blow, and he went 
on talking because talking was less painful than silence. 

“ Argentines have gone from bad to worse. Senor 
Roustaine probably bought these at low prices believing 
they would come up again as many others did. Instead, 
the European markets have discredited them entirely. 
Why, your great house of Baring has practically come to 
the ground over these same securities. But for 5^our 
Bank of England stepping in, it would have had to close 
its doors. It is sad, very, very sad, and even if Argen- 
tines were good, things here are in such a state of chaos 
that we do not know from day to day where we stand. If 
I may advise, Sefiora, I would say, if you are able to do 
it, carry these securities with you to England, lock them 
up for ten years, and by that time they will probably be 
worth all the money that has been paid for them. The 
balance of the account is of course at your disposal. 
You would wish to take that ?” 

“ Thank you,” she said quietly. “ Yes, I will take 
that.” 

“ I will make out a receipt and get you the money. 
You would like it, perhaps, in English gold ?” 

She bowed and he went out. It was a heavy blow, 
and would have been a crushing one but for the fact of 


126 INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 

that money of her own awaiting her in England. With 
the amount she had to receive here, and what she had 
left after paying their passage from Sydney, she would 
still have enough left to carry them to England and a 
trifle over. 

The amount the banker handed her was very much 
less than she anticipated, but he explained that through 
the political troubles in Chili, the dollar was very much 
depreciated, and that he had given her the very highest 
possible rate. 

“ I will make all these securities and papers up into a 
parcel,” he said, “ and one of my clerks shall carry it to 
the hotel for you. There are rogues enough about to 
steal them from you, worthless as they are. Pobre 
Chile ! we too are in the midst of troubles, and the out- 
look is very, very dark.” 

She thanked him, and he got paper and string and 
wax, and with his own hands made up all the papers, 
except the one envelope she had in her pocket, into a 
neat parcel. 

Then he called one of his clerks, and bade him see 
the Senora safely to her hotel, and as he was bidding 
her adieu he said, 

“ My advice, Sefiora, would be to get away from Val- 
paraiso as quickly as you can. It may be safe, it may 
not be, the next few days will show.” 

Karl was captured and carried away with longing 
backward glances at the delightful bottles of red and 
black and blue ink, and the wonderful stamps that 
printed letters just like you saw them in a book, and 
they reached the Grand Central in safety. 

There they found Leona already returned from her 
quest, which had proved of the shortest and of the most 
final. Her father and elder brother went down with 
the “ Blanco Encalada ” in Caldera Plarbour. Her 
younger brother was engineering on the “ Condell ” 
under Moraga, the very boat that had stopped the 
“ Mary Jane ” outside Valparaiso Bay. Other relatives 
she had none, and she gloomily intimated to Alix that 
she intended to live and die in her service. Alix com- 
forted her as well as she could, and set her to remov- 


INTO THE MIDST OF ALARMS. 12/ 

ing the stains of conflict from Karl’s hands. She said 
no word as to the sudden stress in her own circum- 
stances, but determined if it were at all possible to keep 
the girl by her, for it was not in her to think for a 
moment of turning adrift her faithful fellow-sufferer in 
so many misfortunes. 

That night, when Karl had been put to bed, Alix sat 
pondering over the letter which she had got at the 
bank among her husband’s papers. It ran thus : 

“My Dearest Wife, 

If by any mischance I should be taken first, and you 
should ever need any assistance or fall into any diffi- 
culty, forward the enclosed letter to my good Dr. Zie- 
mer in Roystadt, the most faithful friend man ever had, 
and to the extent of his powers and his fortune he will 
assist you for my sake, I trust, however, that, in the 
mercy of God. you may never have occasion to do so. 

Your loving husband, 

Karl Von Rothstein.’ 

So, if the blows were heavy, there was healing vouch- 
safed also. And this helping hand, stretched out as it 
were from the grave, carried her thoughts back lovingly 
and gratefully to the brave^ true heart that had wrought 
for her so faithfully and so carefully, and she was com- 
forted. 

She determined to take the banker’s advice and get 
away from Valparaiso as speedily as possible, and next 
morning she went down to the office of the Pacific Steam 
Navigation Co. to enquire for berths on the next steamer 
leaving. 

There was no boat for ten days and every berth was 
already booked. Many of them, alas, were never occu- 
pied. When the Liguria left Valparaiso on her next trip 
many of those who had booked their passage on her had 
already taken a longer journey still, and one from which 
there was no return. 

As Alix was returning to the hotel, in doubt as to what 
to do, but determined to consult with Captain Owens as 
soon as she could manage it, an incident happened which 


128 


THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 


increased tenfold her desire to get from under Chilian 
skies at the earliest possible moment. 

She was hurrying along, occupied with her thoughts, 
and giving little heed to her surroundings, when a man 
in a poncho and a broad-brimmed hat stopped for a 
second in front of her, hurled something through the win- 
dow of a large house opposite, and fled down a side 
street. The tinkling glass had hardly reached the 
ground, and she was standing wondering at the mean- 
ing of the outrage, when, from the room with the broken 
window, there came a deafening explosion which sent 
the other windows flying into the street followed by 
scattered wisps of blue smoke. She had just time to 
notice denser volumes of smoke beginning to waft out, 
as though the house were on fire, when she was seized 
by a couple of policemen who had run up at sound of 
the explosion, and in spite of her remonstrances was 
dragged away along the street by them. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 

At first she struggled and expostulated with her assail- 
ants, but they dragged her along by the arms and would 
not listen to a word. So, seeing the uselessness of re- 
sistance, she went with them quietly, believing that the 
shortest way out of the matter was to come into the 
presence of someone in authority with as little waste of 
time as possible. 

“ Feefty tollar I let you go,” whispered hot breath in 
her right ear, and 

“ Feefty tollar I let you go,” whispered a panting voice 
in her left ear. 

“ Not a peseta,” she said angrily in broken Spanish, 
“ you shall pay for this outrage !” 

It would have been. Very much the simplest thing to 


THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 


have paid, but her blood was up and she would not 
hearken to them. So they hurried her roughly along to 
the Central Police Station, amid the mingled cheers and 
hootings of the rabble which followed their course. 
Here her captors thrust her up before an official, who 
regarded her with hardly concealed admiration and con- 
siderable surprise, while the others poured out their 
story, and enlarged upon the exceeding cleverness of 
their capture. 

The officer heard all they had to say, then, instead of 
ordering her olf to the cells at once, as in an ordinary 
case he might have done, he asked her, with an approach 
to courtesy, what she had to say for herself. 

She caught the meaning of only about one word in 
four of what the policeman said about her, and she re- 
plied as well as she was able, in a mixture of Spanish, 
French, and English, that the whole matter was a mis- 
take. 

“ Still, Sefiora, you have heard their story, and they 
are two. They say they saw you fling the bomb.” 

“ But, Sefior, it is false, absolutely false. I flung noth- 
ing, so how could they see me. And they offered to let 
me go for fifty dollars.” 

The two policemen turned up their eyes and called 
heaven to witness to their integrity, and the infamy of 
such a statement. 

“ Where were you going, Sefiora?” asked the official. 

“ I was walking quietly home to my hotel from the of- 
fice of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. where I had 
been trying to book a passage to England.” 

The official made a note. 

“ Your name and revsidence, Sefiora?” 

She was on the point ol giving the required informa- 
tion, when a sudden idea struck her and sealed her lips. 

The country was in a state of chaos, law and order 
were at a discount, even here in the commercial centre 
of the state outrages were of daily occurrence. If these 
men seized her belongings, as they probably would as 
those of a suspect, how would it fare with her boy, and 
what would become of all her papers and documents she 
had got from the bank? It seemed to her more than 


THE Grip oy ihe lav/. 


T30 

likely that there might be unaccountable disappearances 
from among them, and the chances of recovery less than 
nothing. 

She hesitated, and the official noted that also. 

“ Can I communicate with the British minister ?” she 
asked, after thinking for a moment. 

“ He is at Santiago, Sefiora, and the Salto bridge is 
down.” 

“ Then I must ask you to send for my banker, Sefior 
Rozillas, and I would like also to communicate with the 
Captain of the ship on which I arrived here from Aus- 
tralia two days ago. You are making a monstrous 
mistake, Senor, and someone will have to answer for 
it.” 

She certainly was very charming, with her dark eyes 
still flashing wrathfully, and the angry colour still in her 
cheeks. The official was susceptible to beauty, and be- 
sides there might be a mistake; there had been many. 
Those two, Pete and Manuel, were a couple of rascals, 
they would sell their mothers for a song, and he knew it. 
And she claimed the protection of the British Minister. 
The British Minister had been somewhat reserved in the 
expression of his opinions as to the disputes which were 
racking the country, and distinctly lukewarm in his sup- 
port of the cause of the Government. Still, he was the 
British Minister, and mistakes have a way of occasion- 
ally coming home to roost, especially mistakes involving 
the persons and liberties of subjects of the great powers. 
And the Sefiora certainly was very charming, and no 
harm could come from her communicating with Senor 
Rozillas and her Captain friend, and it was quite evi- 
dent she would not say a word more about herself till 
they came. 

“ Very well, Senora,” he said, “ you can send any mes- 
sage you like to your friends, provided I see what it is 
you write;” and he smiled to himself thinking thereby to 
arrive at her name. 

She thanked him, and he allowed her the use of a table, 
and gave her writing materials, while Pete and Manuel 
looked on grimly as though in momentary expectation 


THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 13! 

of the production of another bomb and the pulverisation 
of the establishment. 

Alix wrote to the banker, 

“ SeRor, 

“ You will not have forgotten my call upon you yester- 
day in company with my little boy when I received from 
you my late husband’s papers. May I beg of you to 
come at once to the Central Police Station. I have been 
dragged here from the street on an absurd charge of 
bomb-throwing. Please come and assure them of their 
mistake. I know nothing whatever of the matter, ex- 
cept that as I was passing along the street from the 
Steamship Company’s office where I had gone at your 
suggestion, a man ran past me and threw something 
through a window. Pray come at once. 

“ Alix R.” 

“ Ah ! you saw,” said the official. “ Why did you not 
say so ?” 

“ You never asked me,” she said. “ You took those 
men’s words that I did it. I tell you, Sehor, you are 
making a grievous mistake, and you shall all be called 
to account for it.” 

He shrugged his shoulders and asked, “ And what was 
it you saw. Sen ora ?” 

“ A man walked quickly past me and threw something 
through the window and then ran away up the side 
street.” 

“ And what kind of man was it ?” 

“ His back was towards me, I could not see his face. 
He wore a cloak and a broad- brimmed hat.” 

“ They all wear ponchos and broad-brimmed hats,” he 
said with another shrug. 

“ Well, that’s all I know about it.’ 

She wrote a few lines to Captain Owens also, begging 
him to come to her at once, and the officer sent off the 
notes at once by special messengers. Alix provided the 
man who took Captain Owens’ with a dollar for boat 
hire, and promising them each another if they brought 


tp Tlifi GRI^> Of THE LAW. 

back with them the persons to whom the notes were 
addressed. 

Then there followed a long and dreary wait, for Sefior 
Rozillas was in the thick of many troubles, with very 
many wrinkles in his brow, and the messenger to Cap- 
tain Owens had difficulty in finding the “ Mary Jane.” 

The Banker arrived first, and proceeded to express his 
opinion of the police authorities and their methods of do- 
ing business, and characterised in suitable terms the out- 
rage on a lady, and a foreigner too, only just arrived in 
the country, and having no relations with either side in 
the controversy, and for whose absolute innocence of this 
absurd charge of bomb-throwing he was himself pre- 
pared to vouch most absolutely. 

To him the official allowed his two rascals to repeat 
their statements, and Sefior Rozillas listened with the 
corners of his mouth drawn down in extreme depreca- 
tion and dismissed them with a contemptuous wave of 
the hand. 

“ Poor Chile!” he said, “ when the Vvords of scoundrels 
like that are accounted even as the dust of the balances. 
Why, I could buy them body and soul for — ” he looked 
after them discountingly — “ I should say fifty dollars 
apiece.” 

“ That is exactly what they demanded of me,” said 
Alix. 

“ Ah!” said the banker, “ it would have saved much 
trouble if you had paid it. Now they are bound to their 
lie.” 

He lit a cigarette and glanced tentatively once or twice 
at the official, and then said abruptly: 

“ Now, Senor, all that I have heard is not worth that,” 
and he snapped his fingers contemptuously, “ and you 
know it quite as well as I do. How much ? — Will five 
hundred dollars square it ? — No ? — Well, say seven- 
fifty r 

“ But, Senor,” cried Alix, “ I have done ” 

The hand that held the cigarette waved her quietly 
down, and the police officer looked gloomily regretful at 
the lost opportunity. Dollars to this extent, even war- 


THE GRtP Of tHE law. 133 

depreciated Chile dollars, were not to be picked np every 
day. 

^ “ Well then, — a thousand,” said the banker with an 
air of finality. 

^ But the official shook his head and with a sigh braced 
himself up into a monument of incorruptibility. 

“ It is past all that, Senor. My character is at stake. 
There has been too much bomb-throwing of late, and 
the Government is determined to put a stop to it. How 
can I get over the fact that two of my men swear they 
saw the lady throw the bomb ?” 

“ Pooh ! say you examined the evidence and were sat- 
isfied that a mistake had been made.” 

The officer looked at the banker, and then at Alix, and 
then shook his head again. 

“ It cannot be, Senor. The matter must take its 
course.” 

“ Then I apply at once to the British Minister,” said 
Senor Rozillas, “ and you must take the consequences.” 

Here in bustling haste Captain Owens came rolling 
into the room, his round face purple with exertion and 
excitement. 

“ What the devil — ” he began glaring first at the banker 
and then at the police officer. 

“ Oh, I am so glad you have come. Captain O^vens,” 
burst out Alix. “ This is my banker, Senor Rozillas, 
who is trying to make this man let me go. It is mon- 
strous. I was walking quietly along the street when a 
man ran past me and threw a bomb through a window 
and then ran away, and then two policemen caught hold 
of me and asked me to give them fifty dollars, and be- 
cause I wouldn’t do it they dragged me here and say I 
threw the bomb.” 

“ They mil answer for it, the dirty thieves,” said Cap- 
tain Owens hotly. “ Now, sir, you, what haf you got to 
say against this lady ?” and he advanced menacingly to- 
wards the official who backed away scowling and mut- 
tering. 

“ Tell the madman,” said the officer to Senor Rozillas, 
“ he will be the next one to go to prison,” and he put out 
his hand towards the bell to summon his men. 


134 


tllE GRIP OF THE LAW. 


“ Iff you touch that bell I smash your head,” said Cap- 
tain Owens excitedly. 

“ This will do no good, Captain,” said the banker in 
English, “ might is right here at present. We must bring 
higher influence to bear. Has the ‘ Warspite ’ arrived 
yet ?” 

“ No, they expect her to-morrow some time.” 

“ Then I advise your seeing admiral Hotham at once 
as soon as he arrives, and informing him of this outrage 
on a British lady, and then our friend here will learn 
what’s what.” 

“ And am I to stop here ?” asked Alix anxiously. 

“ I fear there is no help for it,” said Rozillas. “ See, 
Senor,” he said to the police officer, “ to-morrow morn- 
ing, as soon as the British warship arrives, the admiral 
will be informed of all this matter, and he will come up 
with his sailors and talk to you. You refuse to let the 
lady go. Very well, she is in your charge. If a single 
hair of her head is injured you will wish you had never 
been born when those sailors come along. You are a 
great fool, and what you are up to I do not know, but I 
know that fools sometimes suffer for their foolishness, 
and I think it will be that way with you.” 

The police officer put on a mulish look, and said curtly, 

“ I am obliged to you, Senor.” 

“ Then, Captain Owens, I want you to go right to the 
hotel, — I have not told them my name or where I am 
stopping, lest they should go there first — and take my boy 
and Leona and everything belonging to me on board the 
‘ Mary Jane.’ There are a number of important papers 
of my husband’s which these men would steal if they got 
hold of them. You must take care of them till I come. 
And tell Karl I will come as soon as I can. You will do 
all this for me ?” 

“ Why, yes, and a great teal more, surely. I will not 
rest till everything is quite safe on board. Be quite easy 
in your mind, tear lady, and we will get you out all safe 
to-morrow, so soon as the Warspite comes. You 
tammed scoundrel !” he said to the officer with a shake 
of the fist. “ I would like to have you on board my ship 


THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 


135 

for just one little half an hour. You wouldt never recog- 
nize youself any more, not at all!” ^ 

Then, as nothing more could be done, they bade Alix 
adieu, and Senor Rozillas promised to arrange for her 
meals to be sent in from a neighboring restaurant, and 
then they reluctantly left her. 

She was allotted a decently furnished room at the Cen- 
tral Station, and a very daintily ordered dinner was 
brought in for her almost immediately, and Sefior Rozil- 
las sent in also several English papers, in one of which 
she was somewhat amused to find the account of their 
adventures and their voyage to Australia reprinted from 
• the Sydney Morjiing News, 

But the “ Warspite ” did not come in next day as ex- 
pected, and the time she spent in that room, at the Cen- 
tral Police Station, with her mind full of anxiety as to 
her boy and Leona and those precious documents, was 
the dreariest she ever remembered. 

The officials, having in view a wholesome idea of what 
might happen to them when the promised British sailors 
came along, should any harm have come to her, treated 
her with reasonable courtesy though with no relaxation 
of vigilance, and when Captain Owens called about mid- 
day they made no difficulty about his seeing her. 

He expressed with vehemence his annoyance and dis- 
tress on her account at the unaccountable delay in the 
arrival of the British warship, which was prowling about 
the coast somewhere in the neighborhood, but had not 
yet put into harbour, but he relieved her mind as to little 
Karl, and all her other belongings. All were safely on 
board the “ Mary Jane,” and the “ Warspite,” he as- 
sured her, was sure to come in that day some time, and 
the moment she arrived he would board her and lay the 
matter before Admiral Hotham, who would make short 
work of these “ tamt scoundrels.” 

So she was fain to possess her soul in such patience as 
she could muster, feeling sure, in her absolute innocence 
of the charge brought against her, that her detention 
wottld end the moment the matter was properly looked 
into. 

The hours dragged slowly on, however. Her momen- 


The grip op the law. 


136 

tarily expected intervention of Providence, in the per- 
son of the British Admiral, showed no signs of arriving, 
and her heart began to grow sick with fear lest her 
friends should have failed in their efforts on her behalf, 
and she be doomed to become the victim of a monstrous 
official mistake. She had heard of such things in 
better regulated countries than Chile, and matters 
here were in such a state of confusion that it seemed by 
no means impossible to happen, and her spirits sank 
low. 

Sehor Rozillas dropped in for a few minutes just to 
bid her keep her heart up. He on his side was working 
also, but — he shook his head gloomily. Things were 
happening outside, and there was no definite information 
obtainable as to what actually was going on, — the fate 
of the country was in the balance, and a day or two at 
most would decide whether Congress or President was 
to be master. 

On the whole Alix did not feel greatly cheered by his 
visit, and she spent another night of grievous anxiety 
and apprehension. They had brought in a camp bed- 
stead with mattress and blankets for her the previous 
night, but her troubled mind would not let her rest. 
Now, however, quite spent and broken, she threw her- 
self down on the bed, and in spite of everything managed 
to get a few hours’ troubled sleep. 

It seemed to her that she had hardly closed her eyes 
when she was startled back into wakefulness by a violent 
and persistent attempt from the outside to force an en- 
trance into the room. She had, before lying down, taken 
the very natural precaution to place the head of the 
camp bed against the door, then by jamming a chair in 
between the foot of the bed and the wall, she had made 
it impossible for anyone to enter without either crump- 
ling up the chair or the bedstead, or driving them bodily 
through the front wall. She had congratulated herself 
at the time on this little bit of engineering, and now 
with the door creaking and straining against the head of 
the bed, and a hoarse voice growling angrily in the pas- 
sage outside, it seemed to her that her doubts had been 
well founded and her precautions well taken. 


THE GRIP OF THE LAW. 


137 


“ What is it ? What do you want?” she cried. 

“ Hasten, Sefiora !” said the voice impatiently. 

“ And why?” 

“ We are beaten. The rebels are close on the town. 
When they arrive there will be the devil to pay.” 

“ Wait. I am getting up. You cannot get in.” 

She hastily arranged her dress, and opened the case- 
ment, for the room was small and stuffy. With the fresh 
morning air there came in a sound she had heard before 
and had come to know the meaning of — the dull threaten- 
ing thud of distant artillery, and the sullen continuous 
rumble of musketry. Things were evidently happening 
outside, as Sefior Rozillas had said, and her jailers had 
apparently received very definite information as to what 
was going on. 

The street below was full of townspeople hur lying 
along with excited looks as though they had much to do 
and their time was short. Her door was shaken angrily 
again and she dragged away the bedstead. The officer 
v/ho had refused to release her, and who seemed to look 
upon her as his own special property, was waiting im- 
patiently in the passage. He had discarded his uniform 
and wore a flapping hat and a poncho. He looked scorn- 
fully at her barricade. 

“ Hasten !” he said, they will fire this place among 
the first, and if they don’t, the canalla will.” 

He took a firm grip of her arm, and marched her 
downstairs and out into the street. No one paid them 
much attention. The people in the streets had other 
things to think about. Their faces were beginning to 
gleam already with the coming frenzy. Alix’s ideas of 
appealing to them for help died within her as she looked 
at them. One does not appeal for protection to hyenas. 

“Where are you takin me to?” asked Alix, wrig- 
gling painfully under the tight grip. 

“ To a place of safety,” he growled. 

“ Oh, why not to the ‘ Warspite ’? I will reward you.” 

“Ah! why not to the ‘Warspite’?” and he laughed 
grimly and consigned the ‘ Warspite ’ to Terra del Fuego 
or some still warmer locality, and hurried her on. 

Up one street, down another, till they reached one of 


138 INTO THE FIRE.’' 

the lower quarters of the town. He stopped before a 
mean, frowsy house and rapped smartly in a peculiar 
way. 

An old woman, almost black, and frowsy and unkempt 
like her dwelling, presently opened the door, and the 
official launched a volley of invective at her for keeping 
them waiting. He hurried Alix up a dirty stair, into 
a room compared with whcih the one at the Police Office 
was luxurious. He pushed her in, locked the door, and 
hastened down the stairs, and out of the house. 

The room, small and ill-smelling, contained a chair 
and a table. She sank down on the chair and turned 
sick with the confined smell and look of the place. It 
felt like a cell without the cleanliness. She could not 
breathe. She started up and tried to open the window. 
But the window was not intended to open. In despera- 
tion she seized the chair and beat out the glass, and 
sucked in strength 'with the fresh sweet air. Then, re- 
vived, she sat down by the broken "window to await what 
would happen next. 

What could he want with her here ? Perhaps he had 
gone to make his own bargain for her deliverance with 
Captain Owens or the people of the ‘ Warspite.’ That 
surely must be it. She tried to believe it, and to draw 
comfort from the thought, and down below she could 
hear the buzz and the clatter and all the stir and excite- 
ment of the crowd hurrying through the narrow street. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

“ INTO THE Fire.” 

By midday the air was full of excited shoutings. 

The Government had gone to pieces at Placilla in the 
early morning, there was nothing yet to take its place, 
and the mob was beginning to feel its freedom. There 
were mansions to be ransacked and shops to be looted. 


■INTO THE fire/ 


It 


139 


wine and brandy — chicha and pisco — were to be had for 
the taking, and so the frenzy grew, till to Alix it seemed 
that all the city had gone mad. 

She had had nothing to eat all day, and felt faint and 
overpoweringly thirsty. She thumped on the door, and 
at last the old black woman shambled heavily np the 
stairs, and fumblingly unlocked the door and looked in. 

“ Give me food and water,” said Alix. 

The old woman nodded, locked the door and went 
away. 

She came back presently with a plate of cold boiled 
beef and haricot beans, a chunk of bread and a jug of 
water. She placed them on the table and went out with- 
out a word. It was all very unsavoury, except the hari- 
cot beans and the water. But after her long fast Alix 
had an appetite a millionaire might sigh in vain for. 
She ate every scrap of the food, and felt refreshed enough 
to wonder if it might not be possible to effect an escape. 

There were only two possible ways — the window and 
the door. The window was too high from the ground 
■ — the door, if she could get the old woman into the room 
again, was her only chance. 

She thought out the possibilities and determined to 
wait till dusk, then summon her as before, and endeav- 
our to slip out as she entered. 

Meanwhile pandemonium reigned without. The shout- 
ings had developed into yellings. As dusk came on she 
saw the glare of a dozen fires, and the air was thick and 
heavy with smoke. Stray shots began to ring out in the 
streets. She began to doubt whether, if she did succeed 
in getting out, her second state might not be worse than 
her present one. 

But she was a prisoner, while, outside, all the world 
seemed free, if also mad, and to the prisoner the one 
thing is to be free. She determined to make the at- 
tempt as soon as it grew dark enough to favour her 
scheme. Her fear now was lest her official jailer should 
return in time to thwart her plans. But he never re- 
turned, and as soon as the little room grew dark, with a 
darkness tempered by the spasmodic flicker of a burning 
house, the flames of which were just rising over the op- 


140 


INTO THE FIRE.” 

posite roofs, she set to on the door and hammered till she 
heard thd footsteps of the old crone in the passage, then 
the key turned noisily and the wizened head was poked 
in as before. 

“ Water,” said Alix. “ Water and food. Am I to 
starve ?” 

The old woman looked at her, and muttered angrily, 
withdrew her head, relocked the door and went heavily 
away. 

She was gone so long that Alix began to fear she did 
not intend to come back, in which case she made up 
her mind to hammer at the door with the chair until the 
old lady was bound to take notice of it. But when she 
was just bracing up to commence the assault, her strain- 
ing ear caught the shuffle of the slow feet on the stairs. 

Now for it. She crouched into a corner whence a 
spring would take her through the door as it opened, 
and then to her dismay she saw under the crack of the 
door the flicker of a light. 

Her nerves were strung high with excitement, and in 
a moment she had altered her plan and taken up a po- 
sition behind the door. The key creaked, the door 
opened, the old woman stooped to pick up the candle 
which she had placed on the ground while she unlocked 
the door, and then pushing the door with her foot, she 
came slowly in burdened with a dish and a jug and the 
light. 

Alix had the advantage of knowing what was going 
to happen. She rushed at her from behind, knocked 
the candle out of her hand, and before the old woman 
knew what was happening, had whipped out of the 
door, drawn it to and locked it, and was feeling her 
way down the stairs. 

She found the door, and with hands which trembled 
almost beyond control she felt up and down for bolts or 
key. She found the bolts and pushed them back just as 
the prisoner upstairs began a futile pounding on the 
door. She found a latch and pulled open the door, and 
in a moment the noisy crowd had swallowed her up, and 
swirled her away like a leaf in a torrent. 

As she was swept round the corner of the street, she 


■INTO THE FIRE.’' 




I4I 


heard a noise up above, and there at the broken second 
story vdndow she conid just make out, in the light of the 
burning house, the figure of the old woman screaming 
loudly. A man just alongside Alix with a drunken laugh 
wrenched his arms free of the press. He had a revolver in 
one hand. He pointed it at the old woman and fired, and 
with a final shriek she fell, and the crowd cheered and 
jeered and swept on. 

The man with the revolver threw an arm round 
Alix’s neck and tried to kiss her. She beat his face 
with her fists, and slipped out below his arms, emerg- 
ing hatless and dishevelled amid the laughter of the 
crowd, which turned to yells and curses as he turned 
and emptied his revolver among them, and Alix bored 
her way sideways through the crush till she felt herself 
safe beyond his reach. As soon as the revolver was 
empty the crowd turned on the shooter, and rent him, 
and bore him to the ground, and trampled on him, and 
then swept on its way, leaving him a stumbling block 
and a curse to all the thousand feet that followed. 

Helpless and breathless and trembling in every limb, 
Alix was carried on in the press. It was useless to fight 
against it. Where the rest went she must go, or go the 
way the man with the revolver had gone. 

Out of the narrow street into a wider one, but the 
crowd seemed just as thick, and here in several places 
were houses which had first been looted and now were 
burning furiously. Amid shrieks of demoniac laughter 
from the crowd a squad of firemen with tinkling bells 
tried to force their way and their little engine out of a 
side street. Half a dozen revolvers blazed out, and as the 
shots rattled on the engine and among themselves, the 
firemen turned and fled, save two who had done with 
crowds and with fires, and the crowd stamped and yelled 
with delight. 

Then to the accompaniment of their own shrill voices, 
and the roar and crackle of the flames, and the falling 
beams of the houses, some of them began dancing the 
cuaa, and the rest wedged themselves back to give the 
dancers room. And to Alix the sight of those wild leap- 
ing figures, the men half crazy with drink, the >vom^b. 


142 


INTO THE FIRE. 


as bad, with their hair flying wild, and their bare arms 
and necks and shoulders gleaming to the fantastic glare 
through their torn clothing, and all their eyes blazing 
with the madness of license, was like a veritable glimpse 
of hell, and the remembrance of it never left her. 

As she gazed with affrighted disgust, one of the danc- 
ing men, vdth a yell of laughter, drew his revolver and 
fired it point blank into the body of the woman who was 
dancing opposite to him, and when she fell he went on 
firing promiscuously into the ring of faces that circled 
round him. There was a roar and a surging scatter, 
and many fell, but none paid heed to any save him or 
herself, and some crawled away bruised and broken, 
and some lay where they had fallen. 

But Alix could stand no more. She felt like shriek- 
ing and screaming herself, and setting her teeth tight to 
keep the hysteria down, she bored into the slackened 
crowd, and worked her way inch by inch towards its 
outer edge. 

An avenue of escape opened before her, a narrow 
street leading steeply downhill. Somewhere in that 
direction the harbour must lie, and she fled along it as 
though escaping from hell. Once a prowling rascal 
made as though to stop her, she flung up her arms and 
shrieked at him, she felt capable of flying at his face and 
tearing it. He humped his shoulder at her and she 
leaped past him. 

She found herself in many strange places in that wild 
flight of hers, and more than once sprang aside with a 
suppressed scream for which she had no breath, at the 
grotesque quiescence of a corpse lying in her path. 

She climbed rough rock ladders, with her heart going 
like a pump and almost suffocating her. She sped pant- 
ing through dark and devious ways, but ever with her 
face towards the sea, and at last she arrived within the 
blessed sight and sound of it. 

With a sigh of great relief she came out on the broad 
frontage of the harbour close by the Custom House, and 
compared with the hell she had fled from in the higher 
part of the town, the silence and the darkness of it 
seemed like heaven, 


143 


INTO THE FIRE.” 

There were many lights gleaming on the water, and 
many boats were passing to and fro, going out laden, 
coming back almost empty. But the fiends were all 
busy up above, and these energetic Charons were min- 
isters of grace, and very much nearer than the angels 
to many a soul in extremity that night. 

She wondered whereabouts the ‘ Mary Jane ’ lay, and 
sought among the anxious crowds, clustered like bees 
near the water, for someone to ask. 

She came at last upon a burly blue and white sailor, 
clean and straight and strong, his bare neck and good- 
humoured weather-beaten face rising above the circling 
crowd like a cheerful light-house. He stood there on 
the quay wall calm and quiet — the figure-head of the 
ruler of the seas, with all the might of an empire at his 
back — while down below, at the foot of an upright iron 
ladder, a white boat with several more of him swung 
gently up and down with the tide. 

Alix’s heart jumped at sight of him, and she bored 
through the people towards him. 

“ Oh, can you tell me where the ‘ Mary Jane ’ is, and 
how I can get to her ?” she cried, with a sob of relief, 
for now she knew that her troubles were over. 

The red-faced giant looked kindly down at sound of . 
the mother tongue. 

“ Why, yes. Miss, she lies over yonder ” — pointing 
among the many spears and points of light — “ but how 
you’re goin’ to get oft to her I don’t know ” — he looked 
concerned for her. — “ Mebbe if you wait here till my 
orf’cer comes back he won’t mind giving you a lift over. 
V/e’re here to help.” 

“ Oh, do you think he would ? I would be so grateful.” 

“ I shouldn’t wonder if he would,” he said, good 
humouredly, “ we’re on salvage duty anyhow to-night, 
and one more or less ain’t no great odds. He’s up there 
now,” he said nodding towards pandemonium, “ after a 
lady ’at we’ve bin trying to find all day. It’s a bad time 
the old town’s having sure-ly. Ye bin up there. Miss ?” 

“ I have just escaped. It is terrible. They are all 
crazy mad and murdering one another,” 

“ Ay, ay! I heard ’em,” 


144 into the fire.” 

Then the regular tramp, tramp of well drilled feet was 
heard, and presently a dozen armed sailors cleft their way 
through the bystanders and gathered round the iron 
gangway. 

“ No luck again, Sorr ?” asked Alix’s giant. 

“ No luck. Black,” said the lieutenant in charge. 
“ I’m afraid the poor thing’s done for. The police sta- 
tion’s all afire, though I don’t believe she was there after 
all. Who’s this ?” as his eye fell on Alix. 

“ Lady wants to get aboard the ‘ Mary Jane,’ Sorr. I 
thought mebbe you’d give her a lift if she asked you.” 

“ Surely,” said the officer, and to Alix, “ I shall be 
glad to be of any service to you, Madame. We pass the 
‘ Mary Jane ’ and will put you aboard. Get aboard, men, 
we can do no more here,” and in two minutes the white 
boat was swinging like clock-work towards the gleaming 
lights outside. 

The lieutenant looked at Alix once or twice and then 
said as though it had only just struck him : 

“ The ‘ Mary Jane ?’ Why, it was the master of the 
‘Mary Jane ’ who sent us on our search to-day.” 

“ Oh ?” said Alix. 

“ Yes, a lady passenger of his had been detained by 
the police ” 

“ Why, that’s myself,” said Alix. “ They took me to 
another place this morning, and I only managed to 
escape when it got dark. Then I had to get through 
the crowd as best I could.” 

“ Well, I’m glad you found us as we couldn’t find 
you,” he said heartily, “ and you’re well out of that hole. 
It’s getting hot up there.” 

“ It was terrible,” she said. “ I am very thankful to 
be here alive.” 

“ Here we are. This is the ‘ Mary Jane.’ Hitch on 
there, bow.” 

A row of black heads appeared above the side of the 
brig. 

“ Captain there ?” asked the officer. 

” Yes, he’s here!” sang out Captain Owens. 

“ Here’s the lady,” said the lieutenant. 

“Ah! that is goot news, goot news inteet,” s^id tN 


■INTO THE FIRE. 


<{ 


n 


145 


Captain, bustling about to help her on board, “ I am 
fery, fery glat to see you, my tear lady, fery, fery glad.” 

“ I am very much obliged to you,” said Alix to the 
lieutenant. 

“ I am only sorry I was able to be of so little assist- 
ance,” he said. “ I shall report to the Admiral how you 
found us. Good-bye, Madame. Give way, men.” 

He touched his cap and the boat ploughed away into 
the night. 

“ My boy, Captain ?” asked Alix as the jovial mariner 
wrung her hand again and again. 

“ He iss all right, m}’’ tear lady, and a glad boy he will 
be to have his mother back again. We began to fear 
the worst had come to you. Where did they find you ?” 
he asked as they went down the companion. 

“ It was I found them,” she said. “ They locked me 
up in another place this morning, but I managed to get 
out at nightfall, and found my way down to the sea, and 
then ran across that boat.” 

Leona sprang up to meet her with an exclamation of 
joy, as they entered the little saloon and then taking the 
mother’s hand, she led her at once to the cabin where 
her boy was sleeping. 

Next morning Rear Admiral Hotham came on board 
the “ Mary Jane ” in person, to congratulate Alix and 
to hear her account of her imprisonment and escape. 
He offered to take the matter up officially, but told her 
plainly that since the mistake had been made by an offi- 
cer of the late government he doubted if anything 
would come of it. She thanked him for the interest he 
had shown in the matter, and told him that the only 
thing she desired was to get home to England as speed- 
ily as possible. He declared she was the most sensible 
young lady he had met for many a long day, and then, 
hearing Captain Owens address her as Mrs. Roustaine, 
he said, 

“ Good Heavens ! are you the Mrs. Roustaine who 
made that awful voyage in an open boat to Australia ?” 

“ The same. Admiral!” she said smiling; “ but the 
voyage was delightful, and the boat was decked over !” 

Why,” he said, surveying her with wide, admiring 


146 “ INTO THE FIRE.’' 

eyes, “ I was only reading all about it in my English 
papers this morning. All my youngsters will be want- 
ing to come and have a peep at you, Mrs. Roustaine. 
Won’t you come and dine with me to-night and bring 
the boy ? Captain, you will join us ?” 

Alix blushingly consented. She could hardly refuse, 
and the Admiral’s barge thrashed away to the shore. 

The officers and men of the “ Warspite ” gave them a 
reception, so warm and hearty as they came up the side 
from the Admiral’s own barge that afternoon, that the 
tears filled Alix’s eyes, and she could see no further 
than the Admiral’s welcoming hand, and every man on 
board fell in love with her on sight. 

Little Karl accepted the welcoming cheers with a gal- 
lant wave of the hand, and gazed around on the wonder- 
ful ship with eyes which looked as though they would 
fall out of his head, and then started off in charge of a 
couple of delighted middies on a tour of inspection. 

It was a delightful solatium for the anxieties and ter- 
rors of the last two days, and no better means of wean- 
ing her thoughts from the sufferings she had undergone 
could possibly have been devised than this astute invi- 
tation of the Admiral’s. 

They all made much of her, and could not find words 
in which to adequately express their appreciation of her 
pluck and courage. 

There were a number of Chilian notables on board, 
adherents of Balmacada glad to escape with their lives 
from the final throes of the revolution; but Alix Rous- 
taine, sitting at the Admiral’s right hand, was queen of 
the feast and by far the most important personage on 
board the “ Warspite ” that night. 

And if for her their jovial kindness and openly shown 
admiration were things to be remembered and to be 
grateful for, so, too, for them the recollection of her 
grace and beauty, and the high courage of her bearing, 
remained with them as a fragrant memory for many a 
long day, and came back to them in many a stormy 
night. 

Little Karl sat among the middies, and entertained 
them with a vast amount of artless prattle concerning 


tt 


•INTO THE FIRE.” 


147 


his island reminiscences, and again expressed his great 
dissatisfaction at the prevalent fashion of wearing 
clothes. As they all sat chatting after dinner, the offi- 
cers all gravitating towards the bright particular star of 
the evening, the first lieutenant began telling her of a 
scene he had witnessed the previous day. It was he 
who had brought her off the previous night, and he still 
found it somewhat difficult to reconcile this charming 
and beautiful woman with the dishevelled creature who 
had claimed his assistance only twenty-four hours be- 
fore. 

“ When the insurgents took possession of the town,” 
he said, “ a party of them came streaming down to the 
jetty. The ‘ Lynch ’ torpedo catcher, the boat that 
actually planted the torpedo in the ‘ Blanca Encalada,’ 
was moored there for the purpose of being surrendered 
to them. As soon as the insurgents caught sight of it, 
they began firing at it like fiends. The men on board 
cried out that they surrendered and hoisted a white 
flag. But the others paid no heed, and rained bullets 
on them. Then those on board replied with the Gat- 
lings, and one by one they were all shot down, except 
two who jumped overboard and clambered on to a buoy. 
The men on shore fired away at them and they tried to 
shelter themselves behind the buoy. Then one of the 
men on the jetty suddenly stopped firing and turned on 
his companions with his gun clubbed and tried to beat 
down their rifles, crying out that one of the men on the 
buoy was his brother, but they knocked him down and 
went on shooting till both the men were killed. All 
that I saw with my own eyes’” said the first lieutenant. 

“ It is very terrible,” said Alix, “ almost as bad as 
some of the things going on up in the town. But don’t tell 
me any more, please. I want to forget it all as soon as 
lean. All your kindness to-night will go a long way 
towards helping me to do so. Can you tell me if there 
will be any ship leaving for Buenos Aires or Montevideo 
before the next P. S. N. boat ? This one is full, and I 
am anxious to get on the way to England, and Captain 
Owens says he can’t get away under a fortnight at 
least.” 


SILVER I.TNtNCS. 


148 

“ We are sending a dispatch boat round the day aft^r 
to-morrow,” said the lieutenant. “ I am sure the Ad- 
miral will offer you a passage as soon as he knows your 
wishes.” 

And the Admiral did, and Alix gratefully accepted, 
and two days later, the dispatch boat “ Firefly ” was 
steaming gallantly down towards the Straits, with the 
little comx^any on board, very thankful for perils safely 
passed, and rejoicing in the thought of happier times 
in England. 


CHAPTER XX. 

SILVER LININGS. 

Alix Roustaine arrived in London on a foggy No- 
vember evening, with her little son Karl and her maid 
Leona, who had absolutely refused to be left behind. 

She drove at once to the hotel her father had been in 
the habit of taking her to, the comfortable old-fashioned 
Morley’s, looking out on to Trafalgar Square. 

They knew her at once, though it was over three years 
since she started out from there, a light-hearted, high- 
spirited girl, to range the world in quest of adventure 
with her father. She had returned a widow, high-spirited 
still, indeed, for that Vvras her nature, and with a memory 
fuller of adventure than most, but with little lightness 
of heart. For the extraordinary delay she had experi- 
enced in Sydney in obtaining a reply to her cables to 
the solicitors in London made her fearful lest catastro- 
phe should await her here also, and should deprive her 
of the funds on which she was counting for the mainte- 
nance of herself and her boy. 

Early the next morning, therefore, leaving Karl and 
Leona with strict injunctions not to leave the hotel, she 
set off in a cab for Lincoln’s Inn Fields, to search out 
the office of Messrs. Beltons, the position of which she 


SILVER LININGS. I49 

remetnbered perfectly, though the number she was not 
quite sure of. 

It might have been that she had given the wrong 
number to Mr. Staite at Sydney and that that had caused 
the delay. She tried to persuade herself so, and that she 
had been tormenting herself with useless fears. 

She knew it was one of the ancient mansions with the 
big porticoes on the south side of the square, and trying 
back in her memory, ' Alix at last fixed on one which she 
believed to be the one she was in quest of. 

She read the names painted up inside the doorposts 
carefully, but could not find the one she wanted. She 
went out and tried the next houses on each side, but with 
no better result. Then she came back to the one she 
had first fixed on, feeling sure after all that it was the 
right one. She tried the doors on the ground floor in 
order to make enquiries, but they were locked, their oc- 
cupants not having yet arrived. 

She climbed to the next landing and tried door after 
door, again without avail, and was patiently standing 
looking down the well of the staircase, and wishing some- 
one would come to her assistance, when a young man 
came springing up the stairs and met the eager glance 
of her dark troubled eyes with a feeling of pleasurable 
surprise. 

“ Could you tell me where the office of Messrs. Beltons 
is ?” she asked. “ I thought it was here, but I cannot 
find it.” 

“ Beltons ?” he echoed, with surpsise in his voice but 
nothing of pleasure. 

“ Yes. Is not this the house ?” 

“ Y-e-e-s! This is the house, but they are not here 
now.” 

“ Oh, can you tell me where they have gone to. I am 
most anxious to see them.” 

“So are a good many other people. I’m afraid.” 

He had unlocked his door by this time, and now he 
said: 

“ Won’t you come in for a minute and sit down, and 
we’ll see if I can be of any assistance to you ?” 

She followed him in and he placed an armchair for her 


SILVER LININGS. 


150 

in a small private office. The sweet face and the anxious 
eagerness of her great, dark eyes wrought strongly upon 
him. 

“ Now, Madame, I fear the information I must give 
you will be a shock to you. Beltons defaulted about 
four months ago, and absconded leaving all their affairs 
in confusion. The only things they did not leave were 
an address that would find them and anything to pay 
their creditors and clients with.” 

“ Gone!” she gasped, turning faint and sick. “ Gone!” 

Then, so overpowering was the shock of this absolute 
spoliation of the future, that she put down her head into 
her hands and wished that the great wave of Raataua 
had taken herself and the boy when it took her hus- 
band. 

When she came to herself again the young law5^er was 
speaking to her. 

“ Don’t tell me anything you prefer keeping to your- 
self,” he was saying, “ but if I can render you any assist- 
ance it will give me very great pleasure to do so.” 

“ You are very kind,” she said, and then after a few 
minutes’ thought, “ I don’t see^what you can do, but if 
there is anything to be done, I may as well tell you as 
anyone else. Beltons were my father’s solicitors. We 
left England three years ago to travel. My father died 
in South America. My husband, at my request, sent all 
my father’s papers home to Messrs. Beltons with instruc- 
tions and powers to invest all the money — about ;^6o,ooo, 
I think it was, — in English Consols. My father is dead, 
my husband is dead and I was looking to this money for 
the support of myself and my boy. From what you say, 
I fear it is all gone, and what to do I do not know.” 
She clasped her hands in her lap, and looked wofully into 
the future. 

Who on earth could she be, thought Geoffrey Chilling- 
ham, with that wonderful face, and ^ 60^000 gone through 
those damned Beltons? 

“ What is your name, Madame, and I will find out if 
you are down in the list of creditors, though I fear there 
is nothing to come to them, for those wretched scoun- 
drels seem to have made a clean sweep of everything.” 


SILVER LININGS. 15I 

“ My name is Roustaine. That was my father’s name 
also. I married my cousin.” 

“ Roustaine ! Roustaine !” said Chillingham. “ Not the 
Mrs. Roustaine, surely?” 

“ I don’t know what you mean by the Mrs. Roustaine. 
I am Mrs. Charles Roustaine.” 

“ From Raataua?” 

“Yes,” she said in surprise. 

“ Why then, we know all about you,” he said, filled 
with amazement that the charming girl sitting in his 
office arm-chair, telling him her troubles, should be the 
heroine of the thrilling story with which the papers some 
months back had been filled. She looked so forlorn and 
helpless in the shock of this new calamity ; so sweet and 
gentle, with the added plaintive touch of her black robes. 
It seemed incredible that that slight figure should have 
borne all those trials and hardships. And to have passed 
unscathed through all the misfortunes Nature had 
seemed to delight in hurling at her, only to meet here in 
the heart of the civilized world such a crowning ill as 
this default of the Beltons ! It was perfectly damnable, 
and the Belton criminality became suddenly monumental 
in his eyes. , 

“ Where are you staying?” he asked. 

“ At Morley’s. My father always stopped there. 
But — ” The clasp of the fingers tightened suddenly, 
and he saw it, and knew what it meant. 

“ Will you wait there till you hear from me? It may 
be to-morrow. And keep up your heart, Mrs. Roustaine, 
things may not be quite as bad as we fear. Anyhow, I 
will promise you that nothing shall be left undone that 
can be done in this matter. Now let me put you into a 
cab, and you shall hear from me as soon as possible. My 
name is Chillingham — Geoffrey Chillingham. You won’t 
forget it.” 

“ I shall not forget it. I am very grateful to you,” 
said Alix, as he went down the stairs with her. 

“ And how did the youngster stand it all?” he asked 
by way 06 making talk, and because the sound of her 
voice was very pleasant to him. 

“ Karl enjoyed every bit of it. He would willingly 


SILVER LININGS. 


152 

have spent all his life on Raataua. Bnt for his own sake 
that could not be. He had no idea, of course, what he 
would miss by growing up an islander.” 

Nor had she, but she did not know it, though she 
thought she did. 

She drove back to the hotel less downcast than she 
might have been. Geoffrey Chillingham impressed her 
as a clever and straightforward young man. His unaf- 
fected concern for her and his evident desire to be of 
service to her, made her feel somewhat less helpless and 
alone in the world. She felt indeed as though a friend 
had turned up suddenly and unexpectedly to help her in 
her time of need. 

She took Karl and Leona out to the “ Lowther Ar- 
cade,” and to the shops in Regent Street and Oxford 
Street, and had to suffer the keen pain of having to re- 
fuse to gratify her little son’s natural childish desires 
simply from lack of the necessary means. For little 
Karl, suddenly introduced to the wonders and glories of 
the London shops, was eager to possess some of the mar- 
vellous things he saw therein, but his mother, not know- 
ing what the future might have in store for them, felt 
the necessity of economising to the utmost, and so had 
to put him off as well as she could with promises. 

The next morning passed without any word from Mr. 
Chillingham, but in the afternoon about three o’clock a 
waiter tapped at the door of Alix’s sitting room and 
handed her a card. 

“ Mrs. Chillingham, The Abbey, Burnslade.” 

“ His wife,” thought Alix, “ it is kind and thoughtful 
of her to call. Will you show the lady up, please,” to 
the waiter. 

And presently there came into the room the most 
charming old lady Alix had ever set eyes on, her face a 
picture of dignified sweetness and motherly kindness 
framed in a setting of most beautiful white hair. She 
was wonderfully active, and the exertion of mounting 
the stairs had added the last touch of beauty to the fine 
clean cut face, all enmeshed with tiny wrinkles which 
showed to greatest advantage when she smiled, and her 
smiles were many and beautiful. 


SILVER LININGS. 


153 

** My dear,” she said, smiling towards Alix with both 
hands outstretched and all the tiny wrinkles meshed into 
a smile of motherly welcome. “ I have come at my son’s 
request to offer you a welcoming hand. I am very glad 
I have come,” — with a glance at the sweet face before 
her. “ And this is little Karl ! What a fine little fellow ! 
Will you shake hands with me, my dear?” 

“ Alofa!” said Karl, shaking her hand with both his. 

“ That sounds very nice, but I don’t know what it 
means,” said the old lady. 

“ It is one of his island words, and it means ‘ Wel- 
come,’ ” said Alix. “ Karl cannot forget his island play- 
mates.” 

“ And this is your maid who went through it all with 
you,” said the old lady, and she shook hands with Leona 
too, and said to her, “ Faithful service, my dear, is one 
of the noblest things in God’s good world. Now, my 
dear Mrs. Roustaine, will you tell them to bring me a 
cup of tea while your maid packs your boxes?” 

Alix’s face showed her surprise.' 

. “ I have come to carry you away to an English home,” 
said the old lady simply. “We are very plain people 
and live very quietly, and what you need after all you 
have gone through is just what we want to offer you — • 
a quiet time in a quiet home among friends, if you will 
permit us to call ourselves so.” 

Was it surprising that Alix Roustaine sat down sud- 
denly on the nearest chair and burst into tears ? Then, 
brushing them away with her handkerchief, she rah 
across to the old lady, and with eyes brimming to the 
full, kissed her fervently, and said falteringly, 

“ I never had a mother of my own. She died when 
I was born. If I had one, I w uld wish her to be just 
like you.” 

The old lady patted the hand that rested on her arm, 
and said, 

“ My dear, you could not have said a nicer thing than 
that. I had a daughter. If she had lived she would have 
been about your age, Geoffrey says you are like her. 
Now, my dear, give your orders. I want my cup of tea.” 

WLen they got downstairs the boxes were already 


SILVER LININGS. 


154 

Strapped on to the roof of a travelling carriage, which 
stood with impatient horses at the door, and a footman 
in a long white coat stood waiting to hand them in. 

And so along the Embankment and over the bridge 
and slowly through the massed traffic of Walworth and 
by the straggling villas of Brixton, they went, till they 
reached the open country, and then at a fine pace along 
the level roads for over an hour. Then in at a big white 
gate and up a dark wooded avenue and as the carriage 
stopped in front of an old-fashioned house — 

“ Here we are, my dear,” said the old lady, and the 
door of the house opened wide at sound of the carriage 
wheels and a right warm welcome came streaming out 
into the chill November air from the great fire that 
blazed in the hall. 

“ Has Mr. Geoffrey come home yet, Mary ?” asked 
Mrs. Chillingham of the white- capped maid who came 
down the steps just as Alix had assisted her out of the 
carriage. 

“ Not yet, ma’am.” 

“ Will you show Mrs. Roustaine to her rooms, Mary. 
I hope you have got good fires in both of them. And tell 
Burnet we will dine at six. This little man,” patting 
Karl on the shoulder, “ must get to bed early to-night 
after this long cold drive.” 

“ Will you follow me. Madam,” said the maid to Alix, 
and the homeless travellers thus suddenly endowed vdth 
all the privileges of a home, followed her up the soft 
wide staircase. 

Were they ever such delightful rooms, so homeful and 
cosy, with the whitest and most tempting of eider-downed 
beds, a small one for Karl alongside Leona’s in the fur- 
ther room which opened off the first; with the cheeriest 
of wood fires crackling on the tiled hearths; and the 
thickest of dark rich curtains drawn across the windows 
to shut out the November night. It was home indeed, 
at its very best and in its most charming aspect. 

Was it surprising that Alix Roustaine’s eyes filled with 
grateful tears once more, and that her whole heart went 
up in a silent prayer of thankfulness for this vouchsafing 
of the silver lining to the clouds th^t beset her ? 


SILVER LININGS. 


A tap at the door, and their boxes were brought in 
with the straps undone and only waiting for the insert- 
ing the key, and as rapidly as possible Leona assisted her 
mistress and little Karl to prepare for dinner. 

Then a gong sounded down below, and with another 
discreet tap at the door, white- capped Mary intimated 
that she was delegated to show them the way to the din- 
ing room. 

Mrs. Chillingham met them at the head of the stair- 
case, and slipping one hand through Alix’s arm, and 
putting the other on Karl’s shoulder, she went down 
with them. 

What a lovely old house it was. The dining room was 
panelled with dark oak half way up the walls, and above 
the panelling hung choice paintings in broad gold- 
frames. And the table with its shimmer and gleam of 
glass and silver, and its bright warm spots of colour 
where flowers and ferns seemed blooming in a bank of 
snow, was a tempting and satisfying picture. 

“ We shall be all alone. Geoffrey is late to-night,” 
beamed the old lady, and when Alix raised her answer- 
ing eyes for a second, and the old lady saw them again 
brimming full with thoughts unspeakable, she knew that 
the sweet eyes had overflowed upstairs and in the wis- 
dom of extreme loving kindness she chatted away to 
Karl and left his mother time to recover herself. 

“ And what did you do with yourself on the island, 
Karlchen ?” asked the old lady. 

“ All day we played on the sand and in the water, and 
all the day we were all naked,” answered Karl with gusto. 

“ That would be nice.” 

“ It was,” said Karl. “ Mother says I mustn’t go naked 
here.” 

“ Well, you wouldn’t like to just now, would you ?” 

“ N-n-no! Not just now, perhaps. But when the sun 
comes out and the north wind blows then I would like to 
go naked.” 

“ When the north wind blows, little man, you will want 
your thickest coat with the collar turned up.” 

The small bo}^ looked puzzled, and his mother said 
quietly, by way of explanation, “ We were just on thQ 


SILVER LININGS. 


156 

other side of the equator there, and our hottest wind was 
the one from the North.” 

“ I see,” said the old lady, “ topsy-turveydom. What 
a splendid place it must have been for children. It has 
given him a good start towards a long life, anyhow. He 
is just the picture of health.” 

“ Yes, he has never had a sign of illness yet.” 

“ Well, that is something to be thankful for. The 
trouble I had with my boy Geoff. Such a weakling as 
he was. At times I never thought he would grow to be 
a man. But he got over it all, and he’s as strong and 
hearty as any of them. It never does to lose heart in 
this world,” and the wise grey head nodded sagely, and 
Alix appreciated all the little hints, and they made for 
the strengthening of her soul. 

Just then the door opened and Geoffrey Chillingham 
came quietly in. He greeted the white-haired mother 
with a kiss and an approving pat on the shoulder, and 
then turned to Alix with a face radiating hospitality. 

“ I am very glad my mother succeeded in carrying out 
her plans,” he said, “ I doubted whether even her per- 
suasive powers would suffice.” 

“ It was herself,” said Alix simply. “ She said ‘ Come,* 
and we came.” 

“ And this is the young hero of Raataiia ?” he said 
turning to Karl, “ Why, old man, you’ll want to sit on a 
chair for the rest of your life, I should think, after so 
much travelling.” 

“ No, I want to go about naked,” said Karl briskly, 
“ but Mother won’t let me.” At which they all laughed, 
and the matter was satisfactorily explained to Geoffrey. 

“ Well, if you went naked here, you’d have a crowd 
after you, and then the policeman would run you in, and 
besides you’d get such a bad cold that you couldn’t go 
out any more.’* 

“ What’s a policeman ?” asked Karl. 

“ He’s the man who tries to keep us all in order.* 

“ We didn’t have any policemen on Raataua.” 

“ Happy Raataua,” said Geoffrey. 

Yes,” said Karl. “ It’s a very much nicer place than 


SILVER LININGS. 1 57 

London. “ Why, you have no beach, and no surf, and 
no cocoanuts, nothing.” 

“We have to get along as well as we can without 
them.” 

Karl shook his little head commiseratingly, and 
watched Geoffrey finish his dinner with eyes that 
drooped between pity and sleepiness. Alix intimated to 
him that it was time he was in bed, and Mrs. Chilling- 
ham insisted on accompanying them. 

“ It is so long since I have put a baby to bed,” she said 
with a wistful sigh, and she sat and rejoiced in his plump 
little body and sturdy little limbs, and enjoyed every de- 
tail of the operation with a particular satisfaction to which 
her sweet old heart had been a stranger for many a long 
year. 

“ My dear,” she said to Alix, when the youngster had 
snuggled down among the bedclothes, and fallen asleep 
almost as soon as his head touched the pillow, “ you have 
much to be thankful for after all, while you have him. 
Now come along to my own room and we will see if 
Geoffrey has any news for you.” 

She led Alix slowly along the passage to her own cosy 
sitting room, which was along side her bedroom. 

Here they found Geoffrey sitting with a cigar and an 
evening paper. His mother settled Alix in a cosy chair 
near the fire and picked up her knitting and sat down 
opposite her. 

“ I am a privileged person, you see, Mrs. Roustaine,” 
he said, “ I am the only person in the house who is al- 
lowed to smoke in this room, and I do it chiefly because 
the Mother says the smell of the smoke reminds her of 
me when I am away.” 

“ It is very good of you to sacrifice yourself in that 
way. Were you able to find out anything about my 
affairs, Mr. Chillingham ?” 

“ Nothing very definite or very encouraging so far, I 
am sorry to say. I saw the liquidator of the estate, and 
he was good enough to search back in the Belton books 
and papers, and, so far as we can make out, the scoun- 
drels carried out your husband’s instructions as far as 
selling out all the various stocks, as your power of attor- 


SILVER LININGS. 


158 

ney enabled them to do, and they invested the money in 
Consols, but in their own name. By the way. Chase, the 
liquidator, told me a curious thing, — the very last entry 
in the Belton cash book is the payment of ;^3oo to Mrs. 
Roustaine per Sydney Morning News in May last.” 

“ That would be the money they cabled to me at Syd- 
ney,” said Alix. 

“ Well, they bolted next day. The Sydney people 
must just have caught them on the hop, and bullied it 
out of them before they were quite ready to start. It was 
touch and go though. It’s a wretched business altogether, 
and if they could be found I doubt if they would ever get 
out again. But after all, that would not make good their 
default, and that is what concerns us chiefly.” 

“ Will there be nothing at all?” asked Alix pale with 
anxiety. 

“ I would not say that yet. There may be invest- 
ments of theirs which have not yet come to light. They 
may yet be caught and made to disgorge. There are 
always possibilities. You must wait as patiently as you 
can for a time, and we will hope for the best. The 
liquidator is a friend of mine and will let me know how 
things go on.” 

Alix sat in stricken silence from which they tried in 
vain to rally her. To all the mother’s gentle flow of 
talk and the son’s cheerful chatter, she replied only in 
monosyllables, and at last, pleading headache, which they 
knew meant heartache, she rose to retire for the night, 
and the old lady insisted on accompanying her to her 
room and taking another look at the sleeping boy, and 
this time it was the old lady’s eyes that were dim as she 
kissed the young one good night, and wished her “ Sweet 
sleep, my dear!” 

And when she got back to her own room, she asked 
her son, “ What will be the outcome of it, Geoffrey?” 

And Geoffrey answered “ She won’t get a penny, but 
it would be cruel to tell her so all at once.” 

“ Poor young thing,” sighed the old lady. “ She is, I 
am sure, as good as she is beautiful. It is very hard. 
And her boy is almost as pretty as you were at his age, 
GeofE.” 


A FINAL TEST OF FORTUNE. 


159 


Geoffrey laughed and kissed her. 

“ If an)rthing can be done, I am sure you will do it for 
her, Geoffrey.” 

“ Be sure of that,” he said. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

A FINAL TEST OF FORTUNE. 

The days passed, and each night Alix asked anxiously 
for news, and Geoffrey had none to give her, but ever 
gave her words of hope and encouragement. She was 
grateful to him for his endeavours on her behalf and for 
the hopefulness he did his best to instill into her. And 
as for his mother’s gentle sympathy and loving tender- 
ness, the girl’s heart swelled big at thought of it all, and 
her gratitude shone out through her eyes whenever she 
looked at the old lady, and the old lady saw and under- 
stood. 

But to Alix, in spite of all the extreme and unstinted 
kindness of her new friends, the position of matters was 
becoming painful. She knew her stopping at the Abbey 
was no tax upon them. On the contrary, Mrs. Chilling- 
ham and her son showed in a dozen delicate ways how 
greatly they enjoyed having her there, and did every- 
thing in their power to make her feel at home and satis- 
fied to stop on. 

But sooner or later Alix felt that the terrible question 
of the future had to be faced. It loomed heavily in 
front of her, and the hospitality of the Chillinghams, 
while it might postpone the falling of the cloud for a 
time, could not remove it altogether, unless indeed — and 
that was not to be thought of. Geoffrey ChiHingham 
was an extremely nice fellow, a man of whose love any 
woman might be proud, but she had no feeling for him 
beyond gratitude and friendship, and she had every rea- 
son to fear that his feelings towards herself were begin- 


l6o A FINAL TEST OF FOKTUNE. 

ning to run into deeper channels, and moreover, that his 
mother cordially endorsed him in the matter. 

Night after night, when he had reported to her 
that he had still no news, she lay awake pondering mat- 
ters, and taxing her brain till it was weary in the vain 
endeavour to find some outlet from the difficulties of her 
position. And at the breakfast table they would gently 
chide her for worrying, and wonder why she could not 
be content to wait on patiently. But she had come to 
believe there was no hope, and her heart was sick at 
thought of the future, and after many sleepless nights 
she determined on a step from which she shrank, and 
yet which seemed the only one left to her. 

When they gathered round the fire in Mrs. Chilling- 
ham’s room one evening after the usual nightly adora- 
tion of little Karl, and his comfortable tucking in be- 
tween the sheets, she turned abruptly to Chillingham 
and asked, 

“ Do you know anything of Vascovia, Mr. Chilling- 
ham ?” 

“ I believe there is such a place. Somewhere in Rus- 
sia, isn’t it r” 

“ It’s not in Russia, but it’s in Eastern Europe. I 
want your advice.” 

“ It is at your service at all times, Mrs. Roustaine,” 
he said, in a tone which implied “ that and anything 
else you could ask.” 

She was silent for a moment, not knowing quite how 
to begin. 

“We Roust aines,” she said at last, “ are of the reign- 
ing house of Vascovia, the Von Rothsteins. My father 
changed his name to Roustaine in order to free himself 
from all the fetters of family tradition. Some former 
Rothstein had gypsy blood in him and it crops out oc- 
casionally still. It did so in my father, it did so in me, 
and it did so in my husband. When it is in us, it has 
to be satisfied, and the breadth of the earth is none too 
large for us. My husband’s elder brother is King John 
of Vascovia. He has two sons, so the succession is safe 
in his family, and Karl, my husband, having the gypsy 


A FINAL TEST OF FORTUNE. l6l 

in him, stood the life at Roystadt as long as he could, 
and then threw it all up and let the gypsy blood have 
its way. He saved my father’s life and mine at risk of 
his own on the upper Amazon, when we were captured 
by the natives, and after my father’s death from his 
wounds, he married me. Before we sailed for the Pa- 
cific, he left, among his papers at the bank in Valparaiso, 
a letter for me in case anything happened to him, and 
in that letter was another addressed to a Dr. Ziemer, a 
very old and tried friend of my husband’s in Roystadt, 
and he told me to deliver that letter if ever I was driven 
to extremity.” 

Geoffrey Chillingham’s face had grown graver and 
harder with every word. His mother had dropped the 
knitting, which she was never quite happy without, and 
gazed wonderingly at the girl as she spoke, with eyes 
that grew wider and wider. 

“ And — ?” said Geoffrey, as Alix said no more. 

“ I am feeling that I ought to deliver that letter,” she 
said quietly. “ What the result may be, I cannot tell, 
but I think it is my duty to deliver it. I am sure you 
will not think me ungrateful. I did not know there was 
such kindness in the world as you have shown to me, an 
utter stranger.” 

“ My dear,” said the old lady, “ we have not felt you 
like a stranger. You have been a pleasure in the house, 
and dear little Karl. Could you not — ?” She broke off 
nervously, not knowing exactly where she was getting 
to, and Geoffrey broke in upon a somewhat awkward 
silence with, 

“ Have you thought the whole matter over care- 
fully ?” 

“ I have thought and thought till I have grown almost 
sick of thinking. It seems the only thing left for me to 
do.” 

He sat silent for a time, gazing into the fire and biting 
his lips inside. He looked wistfully at her after a time, 
and said, 

“ You have quite made up your mind as to this ?” 

And she returned his look steadily, and said, 


i 62 


'A FINAL TEST OF FORTUNE. 


“ Yes, I think I ought to go for the boy’s sake.” 

His quick eyes snapped hopefully for a moment, and 
he looked keenly at her, but he failed to find there what 
he would have given all he possessed in the world to 
find, and his face fell, and he leaned forward and care- 
fully replaced on the fire a piece of wood which had 
fallen down and was hissing and spitting on the hearth. 

“ If you are quite decided on it, it would not be seemly 
in us to attempt to dissuade you,” he said, dangling the 
tongs in his hand, “ but suppose you wait, say a week, to 
see if anything turns up about the Belton matter, and 
meanwhile I will learn what I can as to affairs in Vas- 
co via.” 

“ That is very good of you, Mr. Chillingham. I do 
hope you won’t misjudge me in this matter,” — she was 
looking at the old lady now, and her eyes were glisten- 
ing, — “ you have been so very, very good to me, but the 
future weighs heavily on me, and it has got to be faced 
sooner or later.” 

“ You must do just what you think best, my dear,” 
said Mrs. Chillingham, nodding sympathetically towards 
her, “ I do not see that any harm is likely to come of it, 
and if nothing good comes of it, you will not forget that 
your friends at the Abbey will rejoice to see you back 
again.” 

“ It is no good my trying to thank you,” said Alix, 
“ for I cannot do it, but I never can forget all your kind- 
ness.” 

But the days of grace passed by. No word of hope 
was forthcoming concerning the Belton matter, and the 
only information Geoffrey Chillingham was able to pro- 
cure respecting Vasco via was such as he could glean 
from the Almanach de Gotha, where the usual particu- 
lars concerning the reigning house were duly set forth. 
For the little kingdom was of small account compared 
with its greater neighbours, and the ripples of its affairs 
rarely extended beyond its own borders. 

And at the end of the week the travellers bade Mrs. 
Chillingham a loving farewell and set out once more to 
put their fortunes to the touch. Geoffrey accompanied 


A FINAL TEST OF FORTUNE. 1 63 

them to Victoria and gave the sole of his foot no rest till 
he had seen them safely into the train for Dover, and had 
surrounded them with every comfort his wits could de- 
vise, and his purse could procure, and had extracted 
from Alix a promise to return, for a time at all events, 
if she met with no success in her quest. 







BOOK IL— HEIMWEH. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 

It was the middle of the night. The train was rum- 
bling slowly along through the solid blackness of an un- 
known country. Alix sat looking wearily out of the 
window, but saw only her own dim reflection in the light 
of the jumping oil lamp in the roof of the carriage. It 
was the end carriage, and the jolting and jerking were 
nerve- breaking. On the opposite seat Leona dozed with 
little Karl fast asleep in her arms. 

But Alix could not sleep. She was full of anxiety as 
to the future, — what the near might bring and the dis- 
tant hold for them. How would Dr. Ziemer receive her ? 
He might be dead. Why had she not had the sense to 
write and ascertain ? What was the position of affairs 
in Vascovia ? How would King John feel towards her- 
self and her boy, as representing the succession in case 
his own should fail ? Were they in the right train ? And 
where had it got to ? It seemed to arrive nowhere and 
for hours it had not stopped at any station which gave 
her any indication as to their whereabouts. It went 
bumping and creaking along through the night, now com- 
ing to a dead stop in the most profound silence, and 
starting again with a sudden jerk and a ricochetting rat- 
tle of chains and buffers from one end of the train to 
the other, the whole appalling jar of which seemed to 
concentrate in that end carriage, where Alix sat trying 
to see out of the window, and seeing only herself. 

[165] 


j66 how they came to their own country. 

But at last the train came to a stand which seemed 
permanent, and Alix lowered the window to see if any 
thing or person was visible for the allaying of her anxi- 
ety. She found that the train was at a small station, 
though her carriage came short of the platform, and to 
her great astonishment she saw that the station was 
filled with armed men. The station lights shot steelly 
points and twinkles on gun- barrels and bayonets all 
along the line, down below past her carriage, and into the 
darkness beyond, and when she looked out of the other 
window she found a silent line of armed men there. 

A man with a sword came along the train, shouting in 
a high sharp voice, “ Keep your seats ! No one de- 
scends.” 

“ Is anything wrong ?” she asked him as he passed. 
“ Is there an accident ?” 

He gave an impatient jerk of his sword in her direc- 
tion and passed on. 

A man in the next compartment turned the handle 
and made as though to alight. The armed man nearest 
him on the line below presented his bayonet and curtly 
told him to stop where he was. 

Presently Alix saw an armed squad going from car- 
riage to carriage under the leadership of the man with 
the sword, and escorting the occupants into the station. 

They reached her carriage, climbed up and flung 
open the door, and bade her descend and quickly. She 
got down with some difficulty, helped Leona down with 
Karl, and, along with the occupants of the adjoining 
compartments, they were marched into the station. 

Here in one of the rooms, behind a table sat a very 
big man, with a great straw-coloured board flowing over 
his chest and a long drooping moustache. The pas- 
sengers were led before him one by one and he briefly 
iflterrogated them, the while a group of men standing 
behind him regarded him keenly and supiciously. 

As. the result of this examination certain of the pas- 
sengers were released while others were led away in 
custody. 

“ Your name, Madame ?” he asked, as Alix stood be- 
fore him, with Leona, still carrying Karl, close behind. 


HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 1 67 

“ My name is Alicia von Rothstein,” she said simply. 

She felt no fear of these men. There was a blazing 
light in the big man’s eye, but there was nothing malevo- 
lent in it, for her, at all events. What they were after 
she could not imagine, but from their orderly appear- 
ance she felt sure it was not a simple case of holding up 
the train for the purposes of robbery. 

He gazed at her in open-mouthed astonishment in 
which those around seemed to share, and all their eyes 
were ri vetted on her. 

“Thunder in Heaven!” he cried at last. “What 
have we here ? What do you say is your name, 
Madame ?” 

“ Alicia von Rothstein,” she answered. 

He gazed at her as one who doubts his ears. 

“ Bohlen !” he cried in a great voice, as the active 
man with the sword came into the station bringing 
another squad of passengers. “ Where is the Princess 
Alicia ?” 

“ In the Castle at Roystadt with Red Rolf.” 

“ Then who is this ?” 

“ God knows,” grumbled the other. “ Who does she 
say she is ?” Then bustling round along side his leader, 
and peering closely at Alix, “ Why, Gott in Him- 
mel ” 

“ Once more, Madame,” said the big man. “ What do 
you say your name is ? And remember we are not play- 
ing games, and we have no time to waste.” 

“ My name is Alicia von Rothstein.” 

“ But — but — ” said Bohlen, with a mystified air, 
“ Then who in God’s name are you ?” 

“ I am the wife of Karl von Rothstein.” 

All the reasons for the profound astonishment which 
these words caused were unknown to Alix at that time. 
Later she understood and appreciated them. She 
seemed as much surprised at their surprise as they were 
at her words. 

“ And the boy ?” said the leader at last, pointing to 
Karl. 

“ He is my son, Karl von Rothstein.” 

“ And your husband ?” 


1 68 HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 

“ He is dead, drowned in the South Seas.” 

“ When ?” 

“ Nearly two years ago.” 

“ Thunder in Heaven ! what have we come upon ? 
Clear the room,” he said in a voice that assisted greatly 
towards that end. “ Bohlen, stop you here !” 

When the room was empty save for himself and 
Bohlen and Alix and the nurse and child, he turned to 
her again and said gently, 

“ Pray be seated, Madame, and answer me one or two 
questions. You say you are the wife of Prince Karl ?” 

“ I am.” 

“ When were you married to him ?” 

“ Four years ago.” 

“ And where ?” 

“ At the mission of Sao Gregorio, on the Upper 
Amazon, in Brazil.” 

“ Thunder in Heaven !” he said, gazing at her wide- 
eyed, “ but — that, Madame, does not account for your 
likeness to the Rothsteins.” 

“ I am a Rothstein also,” she said. “ My father was 
also Karl von Rothstein, son of Leopold of the younger 
branch. My husband was also my cousin.” 

“ Ah ! now I see,” he said looking abstractedly at her 
and tapping a pencil up and down between his teeth. 
He was thinking hard and deep. 

“ You were married to Prince Karl, you say, four 
years ago, — four — years — ago!” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Marriage — all — excuse me, all regular, I presume ?” 

“ Sir!” 

“ Pardon me, Madame. You cannot know what hangs 
to all this, nor — nor ” 

He knitted his brows in perplexity. There was some- 
thing he wanted to get at, but he did not quite knowhow 
to proceed, and he was not quite certain of his ground. 
He ran his big fingers up into his straw-coloured hair, 
and grasped a handful of it tightly as though to drag 
inspiration from his brain by main force. 

“ Thunder in Heaven !” he muttered at last with his 
eyes still fixed in a hypnotising stare on Alix. “ If only 


HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 1 69 

we had waited, it might have come out all right without 
any fighting. If that boy is Karl’s true son, he would 
be the very card we want and the salvation of Vascovia. 
The people would rally round him to a man. But it 
can’t be. It can’t possibly be. Ach ! the pity of it ! 
Would that it were true !” 

Whether he referred of his country or to herself, Alix 
could not make out. He was talking to himself rather 
than to her. His words, however, left seeds of doubt 
and trouble in her mind, though the remembrance of 
them came back more strongly to her later. 

“ What do you make of it, Bohlen ?” he said to the 
man at his side. 

“ Gott im Himmel, I knov/ not !” 

“ Dr. Ziemer must know at once,” said the big man. 

“ Yes, special messenger. Send him off at once,” 
said Bohlen. “Will you write to him, or ask him to 
come here ?” 

“ I have a letter to Doctor Ziemer from my" husband,” 
said Alix. 

“ Thunder in heaven, Madame, where is it ? Let me 
see it.” 

“ Bohlen, the trunk, quick!” 

“ A black leather trunk with A. R. on it in white let- 
ters,” said Alix. 

Bohlen disappeared, and in ten minutes came back 
with two men carrying the trunk. Alix opened it and 
from a despatch box inside drew out the letter and 
handed it to the big man. He took it with a slight bow, 
read the inscription, and turned it carefully over and 
over in his hands. 

“ Doctor Ziemer must open this himself,” he said, and 
added slowly, 

“ It may be worth a kingdom and many thousands of 
lives. Keep it, Madame, carefully, and deliver it only 
into Doctor Ziemer’s own hands. If you have other 
papers of importance, I would suggest your carrying them 
on your person. Trunks may go astray. One further 
word. Beware of King Rolf. In his hand your boy’s 
life would not be worth five minutes’ purchase. He is 
a bad man and the country has risen against him. I 


170 HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 

must keep you here till Doctor Ziemer comes or sends 
for you, but we will do all in our power to make you com- 
fortable.” 

“ I thank you, sir,” said Alix. “ I’m sure we are safe 
in your hands.” 

“ Safer in mine than in Rolf’s,” he said. 

Through a line of wondering passengers, and armed 
men gazing with bold, wide, inquisitive eyes, the little 
party was conducted to the station master’s office. Food 
was supplied to them and Alix sat down in the station 
master’s big arm-chair to await the arrival of Doctor 
Ziemer, or word from him, and to wonder at the strange 
events of the last hour, and, as time passed, to ponder in 
perplexity and not without misgivings some of the 
words of the big man with the straw-coloured hair. 

Karl and Leona at once resumed their interrupted 
sleep on the station-master’s rough but very comfortable 
sofa, and after a time Alix too fell asleep in spite of the 
thoughts that were troubling her. 

Something startled her into sudden wakefulness, and 
she started up to find Leona and the boy also wide awake 
and wondering. 

“ What is it ?” asked Alix. 

The answer came from without. A couple of drop- 
ping shots and then a rattling volley of musketry, the 
shouts and yells of men in deadly conflict drawing 
nearer, the rush of feet along the station platform, an- 
other volley, shouts, curses, splintering of glass, and rend- 
ing of wood. A couple of bullets came through the win- 
dow of their room and Karl clapped his hands at the 
noise and the tinkling of the glass on the floor. 

Alix started up, but on second thoughts drew them 
with herself into a corner where no stray bullets would 
be likely to reach. Then for a short space the noise of 
the fight rolled away down the line and then came the 
regular tread of marching men returning to the station. 
Then they heard the disjointed talk of the men out- 
side their door, as they stood to their arms and 
awaited further orders, an occasional joke, and a laugh, 
and now and then an oath, as one or other bound up a 
wound and cursed the man who made it. 


HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 171 

What might be the meaning of all this she could only 
imagine — that the insurgents had been beaten out of the 
station by a detachment of regulars ; and then the big 
man’s warning came back to her and sent a thrill of 
dread to her heart. 

Perhaps they would leave without discovering them. 
But that was not to be. Heavy official feet were tramp- 
ing to and fro in the station, and presently the handle 
of their door was turned violently, and then the impact 
of a burly shoulder sent the door flying open. 

“ Ho-la ?” said a sharp voice, as the little company in 
the corner was disclosed to view, “ And whom have we 
here ?” 

The question was too general to require answer. 

“ Why are you locked up here, Madame ?” asked the 
new-comer, a tall up-standing man in a blue braided 
uniform. 

“ We were captured in the train,” said Alix quietly. 

“ Ho, ho! then I have the honour of rescuing you.” 

He was looking at her sharply, eyeing her in fact with 
a stare that would have been rude but that it was evi- 
dently dictated by the most intense and overwhelming 
astonishment, and his flippant rattle broke off short. 

“ In God’s name, Madame, who are you ?” he asked. 
And mindful of the big man’s words she said briefly, 

“ We are travelling to Roystadt to see friends. Our 
train was stopped and we were locked up here.” 

“ Yes, yes! but your name, Madame — your name ? 

“ I am of the Rothsteins,” she said. 

“ Himmel! you could not well deny it,” he said. 
“ And what may you want at Roystadt in these trouble- 
some times ?” 

“ Sir,” she said, with her most imperious manner, 
“ who gives you the right to question a Rothstein ?” 

“ We question whom we choose nowadays, Madame, 
the times are out of joint.” 

“ The more reason why Rothsteins should gather at 
Roystadt,” she said, and turned and looked out of the 
window. 

“ That is true,” he said. “ I shall have the honour of 


172 HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. 

escorting you thither, Madame, as soon as I have mad( 
disposition of my men, and we can refit the train.” 

That operation took some time, as the insurgents hac 
lifted half a dozen rails just outside the station on th( 
Roystadt side. However, they were at last spiked dowr 
in temporary fashion, and the train, having felt its W' 
gingerly across them, steamed slowly off towards t 
gap in the wooded hills that leads to Roystadt. 

As they approached the long, narrow defile of \t 
Rotha, the officer came climbing along the footboard . 
give Alix a word of warning. 

“We shall hardly get through here without a pepper- 
ing,” he said. “ If I may suggest it, I would advise yor 
all to get under the seats till the blockade is run.” 

Alix bowed and bade Leona creep under the seat with 
Karl. She herself sat, pale and quiet, trusting in Provi- 
dence that no stray bullet might come their way. 

Sure enough as the engineer put on steam and climbed 
the steep gradient into the cut, there came puff after pufi 
of white smoke from the top of the bank, and the thud, 
thud of bullets into the wood- work of the carriages, and 
the smashing of windows. 

The engineer, however, escaped, and the train toiled 
on and eventually with a roar and a scream drew out intc 
the open on the other side, and dashed along the down 
grade, regardless of possibly lifted rails and anxious only 
to get out of range of the sharp-shooters above. 

They ran a couple of miles into the open, and then 
drew up to get an idea of casualties. Two men killed 
and four wounded out of the dozen the lieutenant had 
brought back with him, completed the list. 

As he came along the train he stopped at Alix’s car- 
riage and said, 

“ Any damages?” 

“ None, I thank you.” 

“ You sat there through it all ?” 

She bowed, and he passed on, saying to himself, 

“ Mein Gott, what a spirit she has, and what a face! 
Now, who the deuce can she be? She is as like the other 
as two peas, and yet I never heard of a sister.” 


A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 1/3 

But he was a Prussian and not well grounded in the 
intricacies of the Rothstein family tree. 

It was but a twenty mile run to Roystadt, and ordi- 
narily the train did it with all stoppages in a little under 
the hour, but as Ivieutenant von Ahlsen had said, the 
times were out of joint, and the train times suffered with 
,.he rest. 

They had to feel their way cautiously, and every fourth 
)r fifth mile the advanced guard would discover a rail 
j lifted, and each such omission entailed a stoppage of an 
hour and sometimes two, dependent on the distance to 
which the missing rail had strayed, and the amount of 
trouble they had in finding it, so that it was afternoon 
before they rounded the lower slope of the Schwarzberg, 
and Alix set eyes for the first time on the mighty grey 
rock with the shining white castle on top which consti- 
tutes the glory and the strength of Roystadt, and by the 
time they came rumbling slowly through the outlying 
houses of the suburbs into the station, it was night. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 

The train stopped. The Lieutenant drew up the re- 
mains of his small contingents on the platform. The whole 
men assisted the wounded, the dead men were left in 
the carriages. Then he asked Alix to descend with the 
others. 

The station was empty save for several scared-looking 
officials. One of these approached Von Ahlsen and said 
a word or two to him, and together they strode off to the 
entrance. The Lieutenant came back presently with his 
face knotted in a black frown, and his very spurs ringing 
with anger. 

“ The people are out here, too,” he said to Alix, “ but 
we will do our best to get through.” 

He took it for granted that she was as anxious to reach 
the Castle as he was himself. 


174 A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 

“ The sight of the wounded men will only excite 
them,” he said to the station-master. “ I will leave you 
two sound men with them, and among you you must be 
answerable for them. Now, Madame, we will try for the 
Castle.” 

Alix bowed. She was anxious and disturbed, and 
knew not which result to wish for. According to the 
big man, the Castle would be fatal to them. From the 
look on the Lieutenant’s face she judged he considered 
the passage through the mob a proceeding not unat- 
tended with risk. She knew too little of the standing of 
the various parties to know who were really her friends 
and who her foes. With Rolf in power she could under- 
stand to the full the meaning of the big man’s outspoken 
hint. Did it follow that the mob would be friendly to 
herself and the son of Prince Karl? Surely a strange 
position for a member of the reigning family to be in. 

And even then, supposing the people to be theoreti- 
cally favourable to her boy, as representing a possible 
relief from the tyranny of Rolf, she knew none of them, 
and they did not know her. In a scuffle of mob against 
Castle anything might happen to the boy, even at the 
hands of his nominal friends. 

However, she showed none of the perturbation of her 
mind. Her face was cold and grave, and she walked out 
quietly in the midst of the small detachment, holding 
Karl by the hand and closely followed by Leona. 

The great Platz on the north side of which the station 
stands, seemed full of people. Dark massed crowds filled 
every inch of space. Here and there the smoky flare of 
torches wavered and flickered, like angry tongues of fire 
above a gradually darkening circle of white faces, and 
added to the threatening look of the assemblage. Those 
nearest the station set up a howl the moment the soldiers 
appeared, and even the Lieutenant hesitated, bold man 
as he was, the odds seemed so tremendous. 

“ Dogs!” she heard him mutter. “ A squadron and a 
battery, and I would teach you manners.” 

“ We must get through somehow,” he said. “ They 
have he^rd of the fight. I hoped we would get here 


A WORM RECEPTION AND A COLD CPIILL. 1 75 

first. Keep close to me, Madame,” to Alix. “ Bayonets, 
men, and don’t fire unless I give the word.” 

He carried his revolver in his left hand and his drawn 
sword in his right. 

“ Now, forward! Stand back, please,” to the nearer 
fringe of the mob. “ We are going through — or down,” 
he hissed between his teeth, and on the face of things 
the latter seemed the more likely. 

The mob gnashed and howled at them, but the Lieu- 
tenant and his men pressed steadily into it. As though 
by arrangement the outer ranks opened to admit them, 
then closed in behind them in a soli(f wall. Their pro- 
gress was stopped. They could go neither backwards 
nor forwards. 

“ Stand back!” roared Von Ahlsen, “ or, by God, I’ll 
dismiss some of you!” 

“ Give us the prisoners, Herr Lieutenant,” cried one. 

“ Prisoners? I have no prisoners. This lady is for 
the castle.” 

“ We want the prisoners,” cried the man. “ Give 
them up, Herr Lieutenant, and you shall have your lives. 
Is it a bargain?” 

“ That, on account of the bargain,” and Von Ahlsen 
discharged his revolver into the body of the speaker. 
“Habet!” he cried, as the man fell. Then the mob 
rolled over the Lieutenant and his men like a crested 
'^ave over a handful of pebbles. 

: Strong hands laid hold of Alix and the boy and his 
nurse, and a voice shouted in her ear, 

“ You are safe — with friends,” and with the shots and 
shouts of Von Ahlsen’s downfall still in her ears, Alix 
found herself being hurried away with a band of stal- 
wart citizens on either side of her. 

Down a narrow street on the western side of the 
square, and on in hasty panting silence, till they came to 
a halt before a big barred door. A signal knock, and 
the door opened, and Alix and the boy and Leona with 
two of her rescuers or captors, she was not yet 
quite sure which, entered into darkness, and the door 
was closed and locked behind them. 

TheT” were all out of breath with their rapid m^rch, 


176 A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 

Alix leaned against the nearest thing that came to hand, 
which proved to be the wheel of a carriage, to recover 
herself. Leona sat down on the floor. When the fight- 
ing began, she had, with a sudden access of presence of 
mind, muffled little Karl’s head in a shawl which had 
been round him in the railway carriage, and of which 
she had never let go. Now as she sank down, she re- 
leased him, and rosy red and wide-eyed he stood up, 
stout and square, and looked wonderingly around him. 

The man who had admitted them struck a match and 
lighted a lantern. 

“ Wait here,” he said, and disappeared up a flight of 
wooden steps at the further end of the room. 

The room in which they were was apparently the 
basement of a large house, and was used as a carriage 
house. There were three carriages of different shapes 
and sizes all draped in white cloth covers. 

This much Alix had time to notice when down the 
wooden flight of steps came the big man with the straw- 
coloured beard. 

“ Thank God, we have you again, Madame,” he said 
heartily. 

“ I do not understand why I am here, mein Herr,” she 
said, “ but I believe we are safe in your hands.” 

“ Safer here than in the Castle, Madame. Doctor 
Ziemer awaits you upstairs. Permit me to show you the 
way. I will carry the young Herr.” 

The steps led to the domestic offlces of the house, 
where a number of servants, male and female, were pass- 
ing busily to and fro, and eyed them curiously. Another 
short flight led to the entrance hall, which gave on to a 
higher street on the opposite side of the house. From 
the hall a broad flight with a richly carved balustrade 
led to a gallery from which opened all the other rooms 
in the house. 

The big man, with Karl perched on his shoulder in 
the highest of spirits, led the way up the polished wooden 
stairs, tapped on the first door he came to and entered, 
and the others followed. 

The room was tastefully furnished, half study, half li- 
Ipraiy. Heavy curtain^ covered window^ and dgors and 


A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. I77 


a softly- shaded lamp glowed on the table, — as quiet and 
peaceful an interior as one could conceive of, and the 
quietness and the peace of it were rendered the more 
impressive by distant shouts and cries in far-away streets, 
and more than once by the muffled reports of guns which 
sounded thin and faint and unreal through the windows 
and curtains. 

“ One moment. Pray be seated,” said the big man. 

He put Karl carefully down on his feet and tapped at 
a door in the side of the room. It opened instantly and 
an elderly and very beautiful old gentleman came briskly 
in. He had silky white hair, a healthy, clean-shaven 
face, and a pair of keen dark eyes. The first outward 
impression he created in Alix’s mind was one of extreme 
neatness and cleanliness, a clean, healthy mind in a clean, 
healthy body. The second was a feeling of capability 
and trustworthiness. To her troubled mind there came 
a sudden sense of relief and dependence. 

Alix rose as he came in. There was a note of fa- 
therly kindness in the tone in which he begged her to be 
seated, but in spite of the diplomatic reserve which sat 
lightly on the fine old face and made it look like a beau- 
tiful antique mask, and hid every trace of what might be 
passing in the active brain behind, she saw by his eyes 
that he was as much exercised by her appearance as the 
others had been. 

“ You have had a troublesome journey, my dear Ma- 
dame,” he said, and the soft inflections of his clear, sil- 
very voice were in themselves an invitation to trust and 
confidence. “ On behalf of my country and my country- 
men I apologize for what you have gone through.” 

“ It is my country also, Herr Doctor,” she said quietly, 
“ though I never set foot in it before.” 

“ And your welcome has been somewhat over boister- 
ous. Vascovia has fallen on evil times, I fear,” said Dr. 
Ziemer, “ and all through the violence and bad faith of 
one man. And this is your son? A fine, sturdy little 
fellow. What is your name, my boy?” 

“ Karl Von Ro’stein. 

“ He has the Rothstein face and his mother’s eyes,” 
said the Doctor, regarding him comprehensively. 


178 A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 

“ And his father’s,” she said quickly. 

She knew he was watching her keenly, but she had 
nothing to conceal and had no fear of his inspection. 

“ You have a letter for me, I believe,” he said quietly. 

“ Yes, it is here. 

He looked carefully at the inscription, and then, as 
one handling a message from the dead, very gentiy 
sliced it open. 

“ You will pardon me, Madame,” he said, and placing 
the letter on the table before him he read it slowly and 
carefully, his white forehead resting in the palm of his 
white hand. 

Alix’s eyes were fixed on his face, and once she no- 
ticed his jaw clench tight beneath the fine smooth skin. 

When he had finished reading, she saw that his eyes 
were fixed thoughtfully on the table beyond the letter. 

The silence lasted long and became at last painful. 
He breathed something very like a sigh and then said, 

“ It is quite time the young man was in bed. You 
will permit me to offer such hospitality as is in my 
power, my dear Madame.” 

“ Thank you,” said Alix. “ I do not know where else 
to go.” 

He touched a button in the edge of the table and pres- 
ently a neat maid-servant appeared. 

“ Take this young gentleman and his nurse to the 
Blue Room,” he said. “ Madame will occupy the ad- 
joining room later on. Send up whatever Mademoi- 
selle,” he said with a slight bow towards Leona, “ may 
desire in the way of refreshment.” 

Little Karl stood for a moment as though to expostu- 
late at being separated from his mother, but she said 
quietly, 

“ Go, my boy, and say good-night to the Herr Doc- 
tor.” 

“ Good-night, Herr Doctor,” said Karl, and marched 
up to him with outstretched hand. “ And good, good- 
night, dearest Mother.” 

She clasped him to her and kissed him, and he went 
without a word. 

Was the diplomatic mask slightly moved, or was it 


A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 1 79 

simply that the keen, dark eyes were filled with a soft 
and tender pity ? Alix could not say, but her heart 
gave an aching throb and a great foreboding filled her 
when the Doctor turned to her as the door closed and 
said, 

“ Now, Madame, let us discuss this matter. How old 
is the boy ?” 

“ Four years.” 

“ Where was he bom ?’ 

“ At Valparaiso.” 

“ And duly registered and christened there ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And you were married to Karl von Rothstein at the 
Sao Gregorio mission on the 34th of September, 1887 ?” 

“ Yes.” 

He looked at her and his heart ached at the blow he 
had to deal her. He thought of his friend Karl, and for 
a moment could not understand it. He looked at her 
again and understood, for she was, even in her trouble, 
a girl for whom any man might fling up the whole world. 

“ Did he ever speak to you of the Princess Sophie ?” 

“ Never.” And then she added, 

“ As my father lay dying — he had been unconscious 
for many days — he came to his senses for a brief space, 
and he asked Karl a question which I did not under- 
stand. He said ‘ And the Princess Sophie ?’ ” 

“ Ah! And what did Karl answer ?” 

“ He said ‘ She is dead.’ ” 

“ Ah !” said Dr. Ziemer, with that almost impercep- 
tible tightening of the jaw again, “ that is the trouble. 
She was not dead, and she was Karl’s wife.” 

Alix said nothing, but her face whitened till her very 
lips were white, and her great dark eyes looked wildly 
at the Doctor from the heavy circles which surrounded 
them. Her hand crept to her heart, and then to her 
throat. She felt suffocating, but she did not faint, and 
the Doctor eyed her keenly. 

“ It was a most unhappy marriage,” he said quietly; 
“a marriage entered into for State reasons entirely. 
Karl stood it as long as he could, and then disappeared, 
and we heard of him only at long intervals, and from 


l8o A WARM RECEPTION AND A COLD CHILL. 


Strange far-away places. Then for several years, noth- 
ing. Then — ” he seemed lost for a moment in a per- 
plexed reverie — “ then — this,” indicating the letter. 

Alix's dry lips conld scarce articulate. White and 
wild- eyed she gasped, 

“ Does — she — Princess Sophie — still — live ?” 

“ No, she is dead;” he picked up the letter again. 
“ But — this letter contains my friend’s confession of the 
wrong he did you in marrying while she still lived, and 
begs m3’’ assistance in case you should ever need it.” 

In the silence which ensued a sound like the beat of a 
big metronome in the streets below forced itself upon 
their ears. It drew nearer — the heavy regular tramp of 
disciplined feet. It was passing. A sharp word of 
command and it stopped, and an imperative tattoo on 
Dr. Ziemer’s knocker rang through the house. 

“ That,” he said, raising his clenched hand from the 
table, “ is in the King’s name. They have learned you 
are here and have come for you.” 

She started to her feet and said wildly, 

“ For God’s sake, keep the boy if you can. I will go, 
but do you keep him !” 

“ I will keep him if I can,” said Dr. Ziemer. 

“ And these,” she said, and handed him the bundle of 
papers containing her marriage certificate and others. 

Dr. Ziemer unlocked a drawer in the table and depos- 
ited the papers therein, and they sat in silence awaiting 
the result of the imperious summons down below. 
There came a tap at the door, and a man-servant ap- 
peared, and said quietly, 

“ The Herr Doctor is wanted below.” 

“ You will excuse me, Madame,” he said and left the 
room, and Alix sat waiting in anxious apprehension and 
with a heart like spilled water. 

The Doctor came back presently and said, 

“ The Captain of the King’s Guard is here with orders 
to see you safely to the Castle. He has not mentioned 
the boy. The Princess Alicia is there, and I do not 
think any harm will come to you. I advise you to go. 
In fact, it would be impossible to resist. I do not un- 
derstand this matter at present, but I promise you I will 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. iSt 

not rest until I do, and as soon as I do understand it you 
shall hear from me. For the present then, my dear, 
good-bye, and may God keep you.” 

He accompanied her downstairs, and said to the Cap- 
tain of the Guard, 

“ This is Madame von Rothstein, Captain Davos. She 
is ready to accompany you.” 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 

Escorted by the captain, Alix descended the wide 
front steps and entered a great sedan chair, the poles of 
which two stalwart bearers immediately picked up, and 
at the word of command the procession set itself, in 
motion. 

The necessity for this antiquated method of locomo- 
tion was soon apparent. Through the front windows 
Alix, saw that the streets, with the exception of the one 
in which Dr. Ziemer’s house stood, were steep and nar- 
row and, she judged, not too well paved, from the occa- 
sional stumbles of her bearers. The houses were tall 
and fantastically gabled, and in certain parts overhung 
the roadway and almost met overheard. The town, in 
fact, like the electric bell in Dr. Ziemer’s study and the 
sedan chair at his front door, struck her as a curious 
mixture of ancient and modern. Her escort, with their 
up-to-date equipment of spiked helmets and breechload- 
ing rifles, winding along the narrow fifteenth-century 
streets, dimly lit by oil lamps, struck her in the same 
anomalous fashion. 

The ascent to the Castle was long and arduous, and 
four separate times did the carriers call a halt before 
they got their burden to the top, and stopped at last be- 
fore a gigantic arched gateway, which in the smoky 


1 82 A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM V/ELCOME. 


gleam of the torches looked like a strange outgrowth of 
the rock itself. 

The great iron-bound gates were closed because of 
the troublesome times, all but a small doorway big enough 
to admit one man at a time, but, at a word from the cap- 
tain, one of the great valves swung back and they 
passed in through the tunnel-like entrance into the great 
courtyard, and at another word from Captain Davos the 
chair was carried past the principal entrance to a side 
door, and there he requested AHx to descend. 

At the captain’s knock a man-servant in the royal 
blue and white received them, and they followed him in 
silence up steps and along mat ting- covered passages, 
till he stopped before a door and knocked. He stood 
aside to let them pass in and closed it softly behind them. 

A man sitting behind a table littered all over with 
papers looked up at their entrance. He was short, stout, 
red-faced and bull-necked. His light yellow hair both 
on head and face was clipped so close as to give him a 
stubbly appearance. His eyes were small and set too 
close together, and generally his appearance was gross 
and unprepossessing. 

“ Ah, Davos !” he said. “ You have succeeded in your 
search.” 

The officer bowed. 

“ And you found the pretty bird at Ziemer’s ? Zeimer 
is a man of taste,” and the coarse little laugh with which 
he accompanied this speech was in keeping vuth his ap- 
pearance. 

“ Leave us, my good Davos ; Madame will be perfectly 
safe in my hands.” 

Captain Davos bowed impassively and his face ex- 
pressed nothing that might possibly be in his mind. 

The subject of these pleasantries meanwhile stood 
with the hot blood adding a riper glow to her dark face, 
and her eyes flamed angrily. 

“ Be seated, Madame,” said the man. 

“ Thank you, I prefer standing.” 

She was wondering who this man could be. Surely 
It could not be Rolf the King ? She was very tired and 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 1 83 

would much have preferred sitting, but the man’s tone 
provoked opposition. 

“ Nay, that won’t do,” he said. “ If you stand, I must, 
and I prefer sitting.” 

“ And I, sir, prefer standing.” 

With an angry flush he said, 

“ Unfortunately, Madame, I cannot stand,” and look- 
ing she saw that he was crippled. 

“ I beg your pardon,” she said hastily. “ May I ask 
why you have brought me here ?” 

“ Surely for your own good pleasure, Madame. Were 
you not on your way hither when those rascals carried 
you olf ?” 

Alix bowed. 

“ They left Von Ahlsen for dead on the Platz, and 
when the troops cleared it he was found and carried 
here. He came to his senses as they brought him in and 
told us about you. One of our people saw where you 
had been taken. Hence,” — and he flickered his hands 
up and down like a Frenchman to complete the sentence. 

“ You do not seem over grateful for our attention, 
Madame.” 

“ I do not yet know what I have to thank you for,” 
she said. “ Dr. Ziemer had already offered me his hos- 
pitality.” 

“ That in itself is no passport for you here, Madame; 
if anything, the contrary.” 

“ I know nothing of these matters. I arrived in Roy- 
stadt only an hour ago.” 

“ Quite so. May I ask you one or two questions?” 

She bowed. 

“ In the first place you say you are a Von Rothstein. 
May I ask to what branch you belong ?” 

“ I am the daughter of Karl, son of Leopold, and wife 
of Prince Karl of the reigning branch.” 

“ The deuce you are ! And when did Prince Karl 
marry you?” 

“ Four years ago.” 

“ And where?” 

“ At the mission of Sao Gregorio in Brazil.” 


184 A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WEI.COME. 

He grunted and looked at her inquisitively and appre- 
ciatively with his evil little eyes. 

“ And where is your husband?” 

“ He is dead.” 

“ And where did he die?” 

“ He was drowned in the South Seas over a year ago.” 

He grunted again, and shook his head slowly from side 
to side, in a manner that plainly said, “ It won’t do, Ma- 
dame, it won’t do.” 

Presently he said slowly, 

“ Prince Karl’s body lies in the Royal vaults here by 
the side of his wife. Princess Sophie of Schwartzberg- 
Kohlen, who died a few days after her husband.” 

He watched her keenly and saw the colour fade in her 
face. 

“ Alas, no!” she said. “ He was drowned before my 
eyes off the island of Raataua in the South Seas.” 

“ Your husband, possibly, Madame, but not our Prince 
Karl. Prince Karl’s body was laid by the side of his 
ancestors with all the ceremonies due to a possible heir 
to the throne. He was a general favorite, and the whole 
people mourned for him, and his wife lies along side 
him.” 

Her heart beat heavily again as it had done in Dr. 
Ziemer’s study. She bethought herself of her husband’s 
letter to Dr. Ziemer, add then she thought better to say 
nothing of it. 

“ And what brought you here, Madame?” 

“ I came of necessity. My husband bade me in case 
of need to come to Roystadt and seek out Dr. Ziemer.” 

He asked her other questions, the purport of which she 
could not follow, and finally said, 

“ The King desires to see you to-morrow morning, 
Madame, and I have seen to your accommodation for 
the night. I will have you conducted to your apart- 
ment.” 

“ And may I ask who has been my questioner?” she 
said. 

“ Truly. I am Grumiaux, the King’s minister.” 

She did not seem so much impressed as he expected. 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 1 85 

He pulled twice at the hanging rope of a bell, and when 
at last a female attendant appeared, said, 

“ Conduct this lady to the rooms prepared for her, and 
provide her with anything she may wish.” 

The maid, a very pretty girl somewhat showily dressed 
in a costume composed of the Royal colours, and wdth 
an extremely vivacious manner, fixed curious eyes on 
Alix as soon as she saw her, and when she had led the 
way down a long passage and a short one, and had 
opened the door of a room where candles were already 
lighted and a wood fire burning on the hearth, she turned 
and surveyed her with a look of undisguised astonish- 
ment. 

“ My goodness, Madame,” she said. “ Are you then of 
the family?” 

“Yes,” said Alix quietly, “ I am of the family.” 

“ You are her very double.” 

“ Whose?” 

“ Princess Alicia’s.” 

“ Is she here?” 

“ Surely.” 

“ Will you tell her that Alicia Von Rothstein is longing 
to speak with her?” 

Alicia Von Rothstein?” 

“ Yes.” 

“If I can I will, Madame. She dines with the King 
to-night, with Prince Alexander and Count Saxelstein. 
Have you seen our Prince Alex, Madame? Ah! he is a 
man. Bigger even than Count Albert. Can I get you 
anything, Madame?” 

“ If you will be so kind, — anything, — I have eaten no- 
thing since noon.” 

Alix sank do^vn into a chair before the fi^^e, and pre- 
sently the girl in blue and white returned carrying a 
well-spread tray with food and wine. These she arranged 
daintily on a table before the fire, and hovered about 
Alix, while of sheer necessity she forced herself to eat 
something. Then she flitted away and Alix was glad to 
be alone to arrange the tangle of her thoughts. 

The events of the last few hqurs h^d left her in a ma?§, 


1 85 A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 

There was some ghastly error somewhere, but where it 
was, and what, she could not fathom. 

Prince Karl of Rothstein was buried in Roystadt. 

She knew that he was drowned at Raataua. 

Prince Karl of Rothstein was married to the Princess 
Sophie, and he died, so this Grumiaux said, before his 
wife. 

Prince Karl was married to herself. Was her husband 
then not Prince Karl at all, or was he some other Prince 
Karl? Dr. Ziemer accepted the writer of the letter she 
had brought to him as the Prince Karl she believed him 
to be, but at the same time stated that the writer ad- 
mitted the commission of a grave crime against herself. 
How could it be? How could it be? Better far that her 
husband should prove any other than the husband of 
Princess Sophie at the time he married herself. In 
spite of all they all might say, she would preserve her 
faith in her husband, the father of her child. 

Her mind grew weary of brooding over the inexpli- 
cable puzzle. She was very tired. She would lie down 
and try and get some sleep. 

Where was she to sleep There was a door in the 
side of the room, and taking one of the candles in its tall 
old-fashioned silver candlestick, she pushed open the 
door and looked into the room. 

It was a bedroom, and the bed looked very inviting. 
She entered and stood looking at herself in a tall cheval 
glass which stood in one corner and, standing so, fell 
again into a black study. 

She heard the door of the sitting room open, and sup- 
posed it was the attendant removing the supper dishes. 

But as she gazed, half unseeing, at the black-draped, 
white-faced figiire in the glass, with the dark circles 
round its great dark eyes, there suddenly appeared over 
her right shoulder a face almost along side her own. 
Stay, was it another face, or was it her own ? Then a 
soft bare arm stole round her shoulder, and she looked 
into the stranger’s face in the glass, and the stranger’s 
dark eyes, so very like her own, but lacking the dark 
circles of fatigue and anxiety, sought hers. And so they 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 1 8 / 

stood, looking not at one another, but at one another’s 
reflections in the glass. 

Then the stranger’s voice rippled out merrily. 

“ ’Toinette was right. You are my very double. Now 
tell me, my dear, who are you ?” 

“ I am your cousin and I am your sister-in-law. I 
am your brother Karl’s wife — widow, alas, now.” 

“ But — but — ” said the bright-faced girl, puzzled per- 
plexity deepening into pity in her look, “ but, my dear, 
Karl was married to the Princess Sophie of Schwarz- 
berg-Kohlen, and he died before his wife, and they are 
buried side by side here in Roystadt.” 

“No, no!” cried Alix, drawing her hand wearily 
across her forehead, “ they have told me so, but it is not 
so. Dr. Ziemer knows it is not so.” 

“ Ah ! Dr. Ziemer. He was Karl’s dearest friend. 
How does Dr. Ziemer know ?” 

“ I brought him a letter from my husband.” 

“ And does Dr. Ziemer acknowledge it as from my 
brother Karl ?” 

He said nothing to the contrary, but he told me of 
Princess Sophie, of whom I knew nothing,” and she sank 
down into a chair, and dropped her hands listlessly into 
her lap. 

Only then she saw the full beauty of this other girl. 
She was dressed in evening costume of amber satin, cut 
somewhat low, and with her glowing dark face, and 
bright lips, and sparkling eyes, she was wonderfully 
handsome, and she had said that she, Alix, was her very 
double. 

“ My dear,” said the other, “ there is something we 
don’t understand, but at all events, you are my cousin, 
and we will be friends.” 

“ I thank you,” said Alix. “ I sadly need a friend.” 

“ Stay,” said the Princess. “ Come along to my rooms. 
We shall be more comfortable there. I do not like these 
rooms. It was here that Duke Francis of Golzau died 
suddenly when John of Vascovia refused to marry his 
master’s sister, and gave him a message to carry back that 
would have cost him his head. That was two hundred 
years ago, but — ” she gave a little shrug and a shiver, 


1 88 A COOL RECEPTION AND . A WARM WELCOME. 

and went quietly to a door which opened on to the pas- 
sage and peeped cautiously out. She closed the door, 
and came back with the corners of her pretty mouth 
drawn down, and the under lip curling up over the 
other. 

“ Herr Grumiaux omits no precautions. He is keep- 
ing an eye on you by proxy. Perhaps he is right. 
He is answerable to the King for you. Now if only 
'Toinette would come — ” 

As though in reponse to her wish, ’Toinette opened 
the door of the other room at that moment, and began 
to remove the plates and dishes. 

“ ’Toinette !” cried the princess. 

“ Highness ?” And ’Toinette’s sparkling face ap- 
peared in the doorway, her eyes roving freely from one 
to other of the two Alicias, and noting keenly the points 
of strange resemblance between them. 

“ ’Toinette, I want my cousin to spend the night . with 
me. What is that soldier doing at the end of the cor- 
ridor ?” 

“ He is watching this room, Highness.” 

“ Who is he ? Do you know him ?” 

“ It is Johann Braun, Highness. Fat Johann they 
call him.” 

“ Do you think he is hungry, ’Toinette ? — And per- 
haps thirsty ?” 

“ He is always thirsty, Highness, and the sight of that 
pate will assuredly made him hungry.” 

“ It is a pity he should starve, ’Toinette, and he would 
enjoy these things better round the corner than in the 
corridor.” 

“ Assuredly, Highness,” said ’Toinette with eyes 
twinkling like stars. “ I will carry them past him, and 
if he captures me, I cannot help it.” 

“ You are a girl of sense, ’Toinette. First run along, 
and dismiss my maids. Tell them you are to attend to 
me to-night. Then see to Fat Johann.” 

“ Yes, Highness,” and ’Toinette tripped merrily away. 
For this was promotion, and besides it savoured of 
intrigue and filled a want in her nature. 

3ho w^s hack inside five minutes, Then s|ie loaded 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 1 89 

the tray and carried it off, and after a moment’s inter- 
val the Princess peeped ont again, and with finger on 
lip beckoned Alix to follow. 

They stole softly down the corridor in the opposite 
direction to that taken by ’Toinette, turned the corner 
and entered a room, and from it passed through room 
after room, till they arrived at last at the Princess’s own 
apartments. 

In a few minutes ’Toinette arrived flushed and merry. 

“ Johann enjoyed the good things immensely. High- 
ness, and the capture of them added sauce to his appe- 
tite.” 

“ I think I shall have to make you one of my maids, 
’Toinette. You have brains as well as good looks. Now 
help me out of this dress and find my crimson wrapper. 
There, that is comfort. Bring the blue wrapper for my 
cousin. So! Now brush my hair for ten minutes, and 
then run away, child, and — ’Toinette!” 

She placed a finger on her lip, and ‘ Toinette nodded 
understandingly and sparkled all over. 

They sat before the smouldering wood fire and talked 
far into the night, endeavoring to arrive at some under- 
standing of the matters which puzzled them. Princess 
Alicia asked Alix numberless questions respecting her 
life in the west, and about her husband, and heard from 
her many things which convinced her that — impossible 
ns it seemed in view of these other facts within her own 
knowledge — it was none other than her own brother 
Karl to whom Alix had been married, “ Though how it 
can possibly be, seeing that I myself saw him buried here 
in Roystadt, I cannot understand,” she said. 

Among man}^ other things, small in themselves, yet 
taken together calculated to carry conviction, Alix said 
suddenly pointing to one of the daintily slippered feet 
extended towards the fire, 

“ Your right foot bears the marks of the burns which 
you got when Rolf dared you to walk over the iron grill 
from the Castle kitchen.” 

“ Yes,” said the princess with a shudder,” I can feel 
it now.” 

“ Your father was told you had sprained your foot. 


190 A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. 

You were his favourite, and he would never have for- 
given Rolf.” 

“ Yes.” 

“ None knew of it but your old nurse, Theckla the 
Swede, and Karl, and Rolf.” 

“ And Theckla died ten years ago.” 

“ And your brother Karl told me.” 

“ None else could have told you,” said the Princess, 
nodding. 

“ And Rolf bears on his left arm the mark of a red- 
hot poker which Karl insisted on branding him with by 
way of punishment. He had the choice of that or hav- 
ing your father told, and he chose the branding.” 

“ It is true,” said the Princess, nodding again. “ Karl 
insisted on my being present. It made me sick, and 
Rolf fainted. He never forgave Karl. What little sav- 
ages we were.” 

“ How did your brother John’s wife die?” asked Alix, 
and as the Princess raised her hand, with a strange ges- 
ture of mixed entreaty and command, and turned a white 
face to her questioner, — “ Oh, pardon me ! Oh, pray 
pardon me!” cried Alix. “ I must convince you. Who 
could have told me those things save Karl himself?” 

“ I am convinced. Pray ask no more. None knew, 
save myself who found her, and Karl, to whom I fled in 
my horror, and John who had to be told. Yes, you have 
learned these things from my brother, and for his sake 
as well as for your own, I am your friend, but what is 
the meaning of it all, I cannot understand.” 

“ It makes my brain reel and my heart sick. I think 
if I had known I would never have come here. I came 
for help, and instead I am bruised more and more. 
What will the end be?” 

“ My dear,” said the Princess, sliding off her chair to 
her knees and slipping her arm round the other, “ what- 
ever comes or goes, you are my dear sister, and we will 
not be parted.” 

Alix covered her hands with her own, and bent and 
kissed her. 

“ Tell me,” she ^^d presently, why is the country in 

tumuUr ' 


A COOL RECEPTION AND A WARM WELCOME. I91 

Rolf is to blame. He was not a good brother, he is 
not a good king. I fear what the end may be. Ah ! if 
only Karl had lived !” 

Her sigh mingled with Alix’s own, and they gazed 
silently into the fire. 

“ The people worshipped Karl,” said the Princess after 
a time. “ He was more like our father than either John 
or Rolf. He was brave and true, and he would have 
ruled wisely and well, as my father did. And he is dead, 
and only Rolf is left to destroy what the others built 
up.” 

Alix was gazing into the fire with a face like a marble 
statue. 

“ Can you believe that Karl would marry me-while the 
Princess Sophie was still alive?” she asked. 

“ I cannot.” 

“ Yet Dr. Zeimer says he did so.” 

“ I cannot believe it.” 

“ Nor I, and yet,” she said in a voice full of emotion 
for all her marble face, “ even if he did, I would sooner 
have it so than otherwise, for I loved him very dearly. 
In the sight of God I am sure he considered himself free. 
Oh, my boy, my boy! My poor little Karl!” 

The statue was gone. She was all woman and 
mother. 

“ What? Oh, what is it? Tell me ” cried the Princess 
half rising. 

“ My boy is here, Karl’s son.” 

“ Here? Oh, where, where? Karl’s son!” 

“ He is with Dr. Ziemer.” 

“ Oh, I must see him. Karl’s son! My own little 
nephew! I must see him at once!” 

Then she said hurriedly, 

“ Do the others know that he is here? Rolf and Gru- 
miaux?” 

“ I do not think so.” 

“ Then,” said the Princess in a low, hurried whisper, 
“ for God’s sake don’t let them. They are capable of 
anything.” 

“ Dr. Ziemer has promised to care for him.” 

IJq could not be in better h^nds^” s^id the Princess. 


INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


192 

“ Dr. Ziemer is a good, true man. He was my father s 
right hand, and John’s. It is only since Rolf took hold 
that we have this Grumiaux.” 

“ You are to see Rolf in the morning,” she said pres- 
ently, “ say as little to him as possible, I beg of you.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 

INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 

From the terrace of the Princess’s apartments in the 
east front of the Castle, Alix enjoyed next morning that 
first royal view over Vascovia, which those who have 
been privileged to see it claim to be one of the most 
superb sights in Europe. A thousand feet below lay 
the town with its jumbled array of tiny white houses, 
their red and black roofs gleaming and glittering in all 
the freshness of an early shower, and over them hung 
the thin blue haze of the sweet-smelling smoke of a 
thousand wood fires. Beyond the town the River Rotha 
wound like a silver band through its richly many-col- 
oured plains, till it bored its way into the defile of the 
Schwarzberg, twenty miles away, and to the left, east- 
ward, lay full forty miles of vineyards and cornfields, 
with dark belts of forest, and tiny white farms, and 
clusters of toy houses which were villages, and larger 
bunches which were towns. 

From that royal eyrie the eagle eye of its ruler looks 
down on twenty towns and over a hundred villages, and 
on the silent indistinguishable life of half a million 
people. 

Alix hung over the stone balustrade, wide-eyed, al- 
most breathless, drinking it all in, and, with it all, a new 
pride of race which she had never known before, when 
a light footstep fell on her ear, and an arm slipped round 
her waist, and the voice of the Princess Alicia whis- 
pered, 


INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


^93 


“ I have seen him.” 

“ Seen whom ? The King ?” 

^ “ The King ? No. Somebody worth a hundred 
kings. Our boy, your little Karl.” 

“ My own little lad ! Is he missing me ?” 

“ What a question ! At first glance he thought I was 
you, but we soon became very good friends all the 
same. He is a dear little fellow. I love every little bit 
of him.” 

“ My heart is sore to see him. He has never been a 
night away from me before. When shall I see him 
again ?” 

“We will manage it somehow. There are ways, and 
good Dr. Ziemer is taking every care of him. He has 
quite fallen in love with him.” 

Here ’Toinette came prinking down the terrace. 

“ Highness, Herr Grumiaux just summoned me to his 
room to enquire after Madame, and he said the King 
would see her shortly.” 

“ We must get you back to your room, my dear,” said 
the Princess. “ The less Herr Grumiaux knows, the 
better.” 

It was after noon, however, before ’Toinette appeared 
again in Alix’s room, and asked her to be good enough 
to accompany her. 

Alix followed her to Herr Grumiaux’s office, and 
found the unpleasant- looking little man sitting at his 
table as though he had never moved since the night be- 
fore. 

“ Madame, the King desires your presence at once.” 

Alix bowed. 

A young man in the uniform of a lieutenant entered 
the room. 

“ This is the lady, Tautz. You will conduct her at 
once to his Majesty.” 

The young officer bowed, and Alix followed him 
along many passages, and finally into the large hall of 
the Castle, where a number of officers were lounging 
and talking. Then through an ante-room where a 
couple of pages in blue and white sprang up in sudden 
confusion from some surreptitious pastime, and so at 


19^ INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 

last to the door of the King’s morning-room. Tautz 
knocked gently, and bent his head deferentially to catch 
the summons to enter. Then he held open the door for 
Alix to pass in, and she was alone in the presence of 
Rolf of Vascovia. 

“ Ha, ha, Madame ! so here you are. Now who the 
devil are you, and what the devil brought you here ?” 

He was rightly named. He was the reddest m.an Alix 
had ever seen. Furious red hair and beard and mous- 
tache, face brick-red from the action of sun and wind on 
the outside, and the operation of more potent factors in- 
side. His eyes were a tawny brown and the very whites 
of them bore out his prevailing scheme of colour. They 
were heavy and bloodshot from his potations over night. 
When his evil temper got the better of him his red face 
became purple, and his thick neck reddened till it had 
the appearance of raw beef. He was dressed in a loose 
shooting costume, with high laced boots, and his leather 
cap lay on the table. Three great smooth-haired hounds 
of slate-blue colour, with short erect ears, and bold, in- 
telligent faces, sprang up at Alix’s entrance, and came 
sniffing around her. 

Her hand dropped caressingly on the head of one and 
he seemed to like it, for he stood under her touch, while 
the others flopped down in front of her, and put their 
heads on their paws, and blinked up at her in friendly 
fashion. 

“ Borus! Hector!” said the King. 

The hounds flapped their tails responsively but did 
not move. 

“ They take you for my sister Alicia,” he said. “ They 
won’t hurt you.” 

“ I am not afraid,” she said, 

“ Well,” he said,“ who are you, and what brought you 
here ?” 

“ I came, sir,” she said quietly, “ to ask your help.” 

“ And why?” 

“ Because I am your cousin, and your brother Karl’s 
wife.” 

“ The devil you are ! The cousinship we might ad- 
mit. You are too like that jade Alicia to admit of any 


Into the family cupboard. 195 

denial. But the other — pshaw ! It is impossible. Karl 
is buried here by the side of his wife, Black Sophie of 
Schwarzberg, and she died after he did. What do you 
make of that, now ?” 

“ I know not, sir. The things I have heard since I 
came here amaze me beyond words. I cannot explain 
them, but — I am your brother Karl’s wife.” 

“ Tut, tut, my dear, if you have had an episode with 
brother Karl, take my advice and forget all about it as 
soon as possible.” 

The brown restless eyes were fixed upon her, but to 
Alix they seemed like the shifty, unreliable eyes of a 
tiger. 

“ What makes you think you are the wife of Karl von 
Rothstein?” he said after a pause. 

“ I was married to him at the mission church of Sao 
Gregorio in Brazil.” 

“ Ay, Ay ! but how do you know that he whom you 
married was Karl von Rothstein?” 

“ He told me so.” 

“ Pouf! that is a woman’s proof, no proof. It goes 
for nothing. And as to the cousinship?” 

“ I am the daughter of Karl, son of Leopold of the 
younger branch.” 

“ So!” he said, and looked musingly at her, and then 
began to tramp to and fro across that side of the room 
where the windows were. 

His hair and beard gleamed out bronze red as he 
passed into the shafts of sunlight from the different open- 
ings. He glanced through them now and again, but the 
wonderful view outside held nothing for him, and his 
eyes ever wandered back to Alix, standing there, pale 
and still, awaiting his pleasure. For a sudden resolve 
had sprung up in him, and it grew on him with each 
glance at the girl, and as he looked furtively at her he 
gnawed his thick underlip. 

He halted more than once in his caged-tiger walk, with 
the quick turn at each end, as though to speak to her, and 
at last he stopped before one of the windows so long that 
Alix thought he had forgotten her. He had found some- 
thing outside to interest him at last. 


196 INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 

Come here,” he said. “ Do you see that?” pointing 
to a large meadow on the outskirts of the town as she 
drew near to the window. 

The meadow was black with moving dots. He pointed 
silently down below to the great drilling-ground inside 
the barrack walls and she saw that it too was black with 
men in long serried lines. 

“ We may all be at one another’s throats any moment,” 
he said. “ The fools think they can force their will upon 
me in place of my own. We shall see.” 

He watched the two gatherings for a time, then turned 
suddenly upon her and said, 

“ As one of the family, whether the cousinship is half 
or quarter or eighth, I shall gladly be of service to you. 
As wife or widow of my brother Karl, I cannot recog- 
nize you, for in that you have been deceived. You will 
stop here in the Castle. I will place you in charge of 
my sister.” 

He clapped his hands and one of the blue and white 
pages entered. 

” Find me the Princess Alicia and bid her come here 
without delay. And — boy ! — Bid Prince Alexander and 
Count Saxelstein to me, and tell the rest that there will 
be no shooting to-day.” 

The blue and white boy bowed and vanished, and 
within five minutes Alicia came floating into the room. 

“ Who is this, think you, Alicia?” 

“ Methinks it is myself, your Majesty — myself after an 
unpleasant quarter of an hour with the King,” said the 
Princess, with an interested look at Alix, as though she 
had never set eyes on her before. 

“ It is our cousin Alicia come to claim our hospitality 
for a time. I trust she is as unlike my sister in disposi- 
tion as she is like her in face.” 

The Princess made a moiie and dropped a curtsey. 

“ She is your guest, Alicia,” he continued. “ You will 
answer to me for her safety — and comfort.” 

“ Come then, cousin,” said the Piincess formally, “ and 
I win do what I can to make your stay with us pleasant.” 

They managed to get to the Princess’s apartments be- 


INTO THE EAMfLY OUPBOAm 197 

fore that high-spirited young lady burst into laughter, 
and executed a joyous dance to the tune of it. 

“ What have you said to his Majesty to make him so 
gracious?” she asked. 

“ He asked me why I had come, and I told him. No- 
thing more, except that he says, like all the rest, that it 
is quite impossible that I should have been married to 
your brother.” 

” We shall understand it all some time, my dear. 
Meanwhile we will let it trouble us as little as possible, 
and I will see to your safety — and comfort.” 

“ Who are those?” asked Alix as the distant meadow 
with the massed black dots caught her eye again through 
a window. 

“ It is a meeting of the townsmen to discuss last night’s 
affair, and to decide what they are going to do about 
things generally.” 

“ And those?” asked Alix pointing downwards to the 
great drilling-ground. 

” Those are Rolf’s men — aliens mostly — the bulwarks 
of his throne, my brother would say. I fear his folly 
and stiff-neckedness may cost us all dear. My father 
never needed outside help. Not a man in all Vascovia 
but held every hair of his head in reverence, and so it 
would have been if Karl were here instead of Rolf. My 
dear, I am afraid you have come to the home of your 
fathers at a very bad time.” 

” And you?’ asked Alix. “ It seems to me that you 
side with the people in your heart?” 

“ Assuredly. They are in the right. If I knew noth- 
ing at all of the rights of the matter, and I was asked to 
judge between Rolf and another, I should know at once 
that the other man was in the right, for it is quite im- 
possible for Rolf to be so. There is a twist in his moral 
nature which always leads him wrong.” 

“ You believe the people to be in the right and yet 
you side with your brother against them. That puts you 
in a somewhat false position, doesn’t it?” 

“ It does, but what can one do? I am bound to side 
with my house,” and she added, as she saw Alix’s eye- 
brows rise in dissent, “ I am not alone in this. Ah ! here 


INTO THEi I'AMlLY CUPBOARD. 


198 

come my fellow sinners ! They generally favour me with 
a visit in the afternoon.” 

“ Enter!” she cried to a discreet tap on the door, and 
’Toinette — who had not needed half a day to clench her 
mistress’s half- suggested appointment of the previous 
night, and had, by sheer force of will and self-assertion, 
already bullied the other maids into permitting her to 
constitute herself extra-special maid-in-waiting to the 
Princess — entered, sparkling as usual. 

“ The Prince Alexander and Count von Saxelstein 
crave the favour of an audience, Highness.” 

Alicia laughed at the style and spirit the girl was in- 
fusing into her new duties. 

“ Tell them the favour is graciously accorded, 
’Toinette, and serve tea on the terrace.” 

The two men entered with a deferential bow of good- 
humoured camaraderie to the princess, and with an 
equal obeisance to Alix, when Alicia said, 

“ Cousin Alix, allow me to present to you our cousin 
Alexander von Rothstein, and Count Albert von Saxel- 
stein, my two very good friends.” 

As their two tall figures straightened up their eyes 
were filled with undisguised astonishment and perhaps 
satisfaction. They had enjoyed the friendship of one 
charming Alicia von Rothstein, here was another to 
double their pleasure. 

They were as fine a pair as you would find in many a 
day’s march, even in a land where men run to height and 
breadth, and are born to the profession of arms. Soldiers 
to the backbone, both of them, long of limb, broad 
of shoulder, graceful of carriage, keen and steady of eye, 
but Alexander of Rothstein dwarfed even his stalwart 
companion. A veritable giant and a valiant warrior, 
yet gentlest and most tender-hearted of men, as many a 
French woman and child had good reason to remember 
during the hot red days in 1870. 

Count Albert was a good ten years younger than his 
friend, and by reason of his youth had missed his 
friend’s experiences of the terrible actualities of war 
“ And save as a matter of actual experience, one montli 
of which is worth five years of study, you may thank 


INTO THE FAMILY OUTBOARD. 


199 


your stars for it, my boy!” Prince Alex had more than 
once impressed upon his friend when the latter would 
express regret that his knowledge of warfare was purely 
theoretic, — The actual horrors of it are beyond all 
words. To hear of 17,000 of your own countrymen and 
half as many more of the other side killed in one fight 
is bad enough, but to ride over the field afterwards, and 
see them with your very own eyes, and to smell them 
with your very own nose, and to hear them with your 
very own ears, my God, it makes you doubt the exis- 
tence of a God almost, that such things can be. It is the 
devil’s own game, and the angels fold their wings and 
cover their faces when the war-dogs slip their leashes. I 
saw enough in ’70 to last me ten lifetimes.” 

“ My cousin has come to stop with us for a time,” said 
Alicia to these two. “ She has been a great traveller 
and is wanting a rest.” 

’Toinette appeared with tea and set it out on a small 
table on the terrace. 

“ Well, Alex,” said the Princess, as she handed him 
his cup, “ what is the news to-day ?” 

He shook his head gravely. 

“ I doubt if we shall get through without a fight. 
What think you, Saxe ?” 

“ If it must be, it will have to be, and we shall beat 
them; but there never was a fight into which I entered 
with less heart. They are in the right, you see, and their 
grievances are very genuine.” 

“ I fear so,” said Alicia; “ but surely some of you can 
influence Rolf ? It is too horrible to think of fighting 
against our own people, our own good Vascovians.” 

“ It is damnable,” said Prince Alex hotly. “ But who 
is going to influence the King while Grumiaux has his 
ear ?” 

“ Grumiaux is the devil,” said Saxelstein senten- 
tiously. 

“ He is,” said Alicia fervently. 

“ Courage, my friends,” said Alix with a smile. “ The 
devil is dead.” 

“ Ah, in the story only,” said Saxelstein. “ He is very 
much alive, I fear. And this Grumiaux, if not the devil 


566 


INTO THE FAMILY CUPBOARD. 


himself, is a very near relation, half-brother, I should 
say, or something of that kind.” 

“ And the meeting to-day ?” asked Alicia. 

“ It passed off quietly, thanks to Dr. Ziemer.” 

“ Good old man,” said the Princess. “ How did he 
manage it ?” 

“ I don’t know, I don’t understand it, but we hear that 
he has assured the people that if they would bear with 
things calmly, for a very short time, he and the other 
leaders of the opposition had good grounds for believing 
that a constitutional way might be found out of all the 
present difficulties. What he meant is beyond me. He 
surely knows Rolf too well to hope that anything consti- 
tutional will have any influence on him simply because 
it is constitutional.” 

“ What could he mean ?” asked Alicia. 

“ Haven’t the ghost of an idea,” said Prince Alex. “ I 
saw him three days ago and he struck me then as being 
in full possession of his senses.” 

And of the four, only Alix wondered if Dr. Ziemer’ s 
new idea could have any reference to herself and her 
little son. Her long hour of pondering the situation had 
brought her to this, that if it was Karl von Rothstein 
she had married, and if that marriage was regular, then 
her boy was King of Vascovia, and Rolf would have to 
make way for him. 

But then there was that terrible “ if,” and, only slightly 
less terrible the position she and little Karl would be in 
if Rolf and Grumiaux awoke to the same conclusion as 
she had arrived at, and were able to lay their hands on 
the boy. 

She had the comforting thought, however, that if by 
any means her claims could be proved genuine she 
would have three staunch supporters inside the Castle. 

From what had passed on the terrace, she was sure 
that Prince Alexander and Saxelstein heartily detested 
the idea of civil war in Vascovia, though if it came they 
would fight their best to uphold the fortunes of the 
house. Prince Alexander because, as matters appar- 
ently stood, he was next in the succession, if Rolf died 
without issue, and Saxelstein because, as Alix perceived 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 201 

within a very few minutes of seeing them together, the 
bond between the count and the princess was very much 
deeper than one of simple friendship. She was the 
attraction that drew him to Roystadt, and Alicia she 
knew would be enthusiastic in support of the son of her 
favourite brother Karl. The more that his accession, 
if it came about, would mean the return of Dr. Ziemer 
to the helm, and the assurance of peace and prosperity 
to the country. 

How Prince Alexander might take the postponement 
and possible destruction of his own claims, she could not 
yet tell, but from the little she had seen of him she 
judged him to be a man of large and liberal views, and 
not likely to be influenced by any purely selfish consid- 
erations. But always in front of her, barring the out- 
look, stood that ominous and fateful “ if.” Her heart 
ached for the sight of her boy. It was comforting to 
know*that he was well and happy, but she wanted to feel 
him, to clasp him to her, and smother his rosy face with 
kisses. Alicia had said there were ways. She would 
press the matter. Then, too, possibly she would see 
Dr. Ziemer again, and she might learn from him what 
view he was taking of things. From his answers she 
would be able to judge if there were any rift in the cloud 
which hung over her. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 

During the afternoon a messenger came from the 
King desiring the presence of the ladies at dinner. Alix 
declared she could not possibly go. 

“ Oh, but, my dear,” said the Princess, “ you must. 
The King’s request is a command.” 

“ But i have no dress.” 


202 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 


“ Oh, that is nothing. We are just of a size. My 
wardrobe is at your service, and my maids will fit you 
in no time.” 

“ But I really would very much sooner not go.” 

“ So would I, but I have to. I detest it, but I do not 
care to anger him by refusing. You seem to have got 
on the right side of him so far. It would be well to keep 
so as long as possible.” 

And so, though much against her will, Alix consented 
to accompany her cousin to the King’s table that night. 
Moreover, to further her cousin’s whim, she delivered 
herself over into the hands of the Princess’s maids, who 
received their instructions from the Princess herself, with 
the result that, when they met in the corridor on the 
way to the dining-room, Alix found that she and her 
cousin were dressed identically the same, even to the 
fashion of the hair, and so much alike were they that the 
very maids who had dressed them, and stood in the pas- 
sage to watch them go by, were doubtful as to which was 
which. 

A number of men in uniform were standing chatting 
as they entered the first salon. At the entrance of the 
two ladies the discursive conversation stopped suddenly, 
and was succeeded by a silence of profound astonish- 
ment. The arrival of the stranger at the Castle had of 
course been noised abroad, and had excited curiosity and 
comment, but this extraordinary duplication of the Prin- 
cess Alicia was startling and unexpected, and the sight 
of their wide-eyed surprise afforded the Princess infinite 
satisfaction and enjoyment. 

Prince Alexander and Count Saxelstein came in almost 
immediately, and at once joined Alix and the Princess, 
and as the King entered close upon their heels, a move 
was made at once to the table in the adjoining room . 

Alix was placed at the King’s right hand, and Alicia 
on his left. He looked first at one, then at the other, 
and then burst into a laugh. 

“ This is the work of that minx Alicia,” he said to the 
one of them who was sitting next to Prince Alexander. 
“ It is only from her position that I am suro which is 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HP:AVEN. 203 

which of you. The likeness is certainly most remark- 
able.” 

“ May it please your Majesty, I am the minx Alicia,” 
said the Princess demurely, for it was to herself that he 
had spoken. 

He looked doubtfully at her for a moment and then 
growled, 

“Ah! you’re at your pranks again, are you?” and 
then as an afterthought, with a laugh that had a touch 
of spite in it, 

“ The Queen of Beauty no longer reigns alone. Her 
kingdom is divided.” 

“ Doubled, if it please your Majesty,” she answered 
brightly. 

He looked at her as though about to say something 
more, but drank a glass of wine instead, and turned to 
Alix, and said not another word to Alicia all through the 
dinner. 

“ And how does Roystadt strike you, cousin Alix ?” 
he asked. 

“ All that I have seen of it from the Castle is very 
beautiful, your Majesty,” she replied. 

“ It would be a delightful country but for the people,” 
he said. “ They are a turbulent set and they need a 
sharp lesson to teach them who is master.” 

He asked her several questions as to her travels, and 
favoured her with a number of his own reminiscences, 
chiefly of the chase and the battle-field, for like the rest 
of his house, he had, though not much more than a boy, 
fought all through the French campaign, and most of 
his stories tended to cast a distinctly favourable light on 
his own prowess, both as hunter and warrior. Occa- 
sionally he referred for confirmation on some point or 
other to Prince Alexander who replied gravely and con- 
cisely, but showed no inclination to join in the conver- 
sation. 

But as the meal progressed, and the wine circulated, 
his stories became broader and coarser, and more than 
one deprecating glance was thrown across the table by 
the Princess Alicia, and more then one scarce repressed 
look of contempt and disgust by Prince Alexander, as 


204 DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 

the colour mantled Alix’s cheeks in distress at the unac- 
customed bruising of her modesty. 

Saxelstein gloomed across the table at the Princess, 
whose whim had deprived him of his usual seat by her 
side, and as the King demanded Alix’s attention, and as 
Prince Alex showed no inclination for conversation, the 
Count and the Princess had but a sorry time of it. The 
other men, however, laughed heartily at his Majesty’s 
stories, and the deeper they drank and the broader the 
stories, the more they enjoyed themselves. 

But the dinner came to an end at last, and at a curt 
nod from the King, Alicia rose, and Alix follov/ed her 
from the room, grateful to escape from a position that 
was fast becoming intolerable. 

“ I always get away as soon as I can,” said the Prin- 
cess as they regained her apartments. “ The)^ will sit 
and drink there all night, except my two, and so Rolf 
looks on them as milksops, though they are the only two 
he can absolutely trust, and either of their little fingers 
is v/orth all those other men put together.” 

“ Now, my dear,” she said when the maids had finished 
their duties and retired, “ the night is young still. You 
have suffered bravely. Now you shall have your reward. 
Put on your travelling things and we v/ill slip out and 
see Baby Karl.” 

“ Oh, is it possible? Let us go quickly.” 

They dressed rapidly, and with a laugh Alicia pro- 
duced from a cupboard two long black cloaks with 
hoods. 

“ Relics of private theatricals,” she said. “ Conspira- 
tors’ cloaks for the chorus. I knew they would come in 
useful sometime. Now, are you ready? We will leave 
the lights. This way.” 

She locked the outer door of her rooms, and slipped 
across the corridor with Alix at her heels, into an empty 
room opposite, the windows of which gave on the great 
inner courtyard of the Castle. Then groping in the dark- 
ness they passed from room to room till at last she came 
to a stop. 

“ Now,” she whispered, “ I am going to show you one 
of the secrets of Roystadt. The knowledge of it is sup- 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 205 

posed to be confined to members of the reigning family. 
I am going further than the rest you see, for Karl’s sake 
and the boy’s. 

She produced a candle and lighted it with a match. 
The room was absolutely empty. The windows were 
shuttered and barred. It felt oppressively like a prison. 

The Princess went to a cupboard in the wall, intended 
apparently for the hanging of dresses. She opened the 
door. A row of wooden pegs ran round the wall, but 
they were empty. 

“ Now,” she said to Alix, pull out the third peg from 
this end.” 

Alix pulled, and the peg came out in her hand. 

“ Place your finger in the hole and push hard.” 

Alix did as she was bid. The far end of the cupboard 
slid noiselessly away and disclosed a passage in the wall. 

“ Put the peg into its place again,” said the Princess, 
and when this was done they passed through the open- 
ing and the Princess with one hand pushed the panel 
back into its place. 

“ This passage leads into the east tower. There is a 
similar way into each of the others, but the east tower 
is not in use, so I have chosen it.” 

Ten minutes’ walk with bent heads, for the passage 
was not more than five feet high, and not more than two 
feet wide, brought them to a door. The Princess pulled 
a knob and the door slid intb the wall and admitted them 
to a cupboard in an empty room similar to the one by 
which they had entered the passage. 

“ The mechanism is in all cases the same,” she said. 
“ You simply need to know where to find the cupboards. 
Nearly every room in the Castle on this floor has a cup- 
board like this, only they don’t all act in this way.” 

From the empty room they passed to the circular 
stone staircase of the east tower and descended it quickly. 
Past door after door which opened on to the various 
landings, till they came at last into the great circular 
hall, from which massive doors led to the outer world. 

“ ’They only lead to the battlements,” said the prin- 
cess. “ We go lower still.” 

So on through ^ narrow door which opened off the 


206 down many stairs to heaven. 

staircase, down a narrow stairway cut apparently out of 
the rock, with sharp turns and angles till at last they 
came to a small postern door. This the Princess opened 
with a long thin steel key, and they pushed their way 
through a tangle of ivy and bushes and stepped out into 
the fresh night air. 

Alix had formed no special idea as to where they 
would emerge, but she was surprised to see no lights or 
signs of the town. They w^ere out on the opposite side 
of the Castle rock which overlooked the country. 

They groped downwards and came upon a great stone 
pillar rooted in the ground. A path wound round it, 
and the Princess passed rapidly along. It wove in and 
out, among outcropping boulders and thick clumps of 
bushes, and tended ever downwards, till they found them- 
selves on the level in a country road which led round the 
face of the mighty rock on which the Castle stood. 

“ Did you come this way last night?” asked Alix. 

“ Yes,” said the Princess. 

“ And alone?” 

“ Alone, of course. Isn’t it delightful? I have always 
wanted to make use of those passages, but I never had 
any reason for it before. That is the Grand Platz,” she 
said as the street opened on to a wide space. “ We will 
skirt it.” 

They hurried on through narrow, ill-lighted streets, 
attracting no special attention, though there were many 
people moving about, for their conspirators’ cloaks 
were not unlike the attire of country women when the 
bad weather comes on, and they came a last to the 
heavy wooden doors of Dr. Ziemer’s coach-house. 

The Princess tapped, and the door opened instantly, 
and closed behind them as quickly. 

“ Thunder in Heaven, Plighness, I feared you had fal- 
len on trouble w^hen the time passed and you did not 
come.” 

By the light of a lamp hanging on the wall Alix saw 
that the speaker who had admitted them was her friend 
of the previous day, the big man with the big yellow 
beard and moustache, 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 20/ 

“ The King was unusually merry and talkative to his 
cousin to-night, and so we could not get away, my good 
Ibach,” said Alicia. “ Now we want to see our boy, and 
where is Doctor Ziemer ?’' 

“ Highness, I bear you his apologies, but he has gone 
to the country to keep them quiet there. He said you 
would understand and would pardon his absence. And 
to you. Highness,” he said with a low bow to Alix, “ the 
Doctor sent the message to be of good cheer and to 
hope for the best.” 

“ Pray convey to him my deepest thanks, and say how 
much I wish to see him. And now may I see my 
boy ?” 

He led the way up the stairs, but this time avoided 
the domestic offices, and brought them directly into the 
large front hall of the house, up the staircase with the 
carved balustrade and along the gallery. 

He tapped at a door and Leona’s expectant face 
peeped out. She grasped her mistress’s hand and cov- 
ered it with kisses. 

“ My boy, Leona. Take me to him.” 

“ I will await you here. Highnesses,” said Ibach, as 
Leona led them from that room into another which 
opened off it. But Alix was already bending over the 
brass rail of the little bed in which her boy lay sleeping, 
and the Princess leaned over the other side, and they 
both looked down upon him, the Princess with a smile 
of enjoyment at the pretty sight of him, the mother with 
all her heart in her eyes. 

His arms were flung out above his head. He had 
kicked off the bed-clothes, and the crimson silk feather- 
quilt, and lay stretched to his fullest with his sturdy lit- 
tle legs bare from the waist downwards. 

“ And I covered him not a minute ago,” whispered 
Leona reproachfully, and made as though to cover him 
again, but the mother quietly restrained her and bent 
over him with eyes which swam and glowed with the 
holiest light which ever shines on earth. 

A diamond drop compounded of joy at sight of him — 
of sorrow for his loneliness and her own — of fear and 
dqubt at having brought him here — of hope for the best 


2o8 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 


as Dr. Ziemer had bidden her, gathered on her long 
dark lashes and fell on to his face, flushed with healthy 
sleep. He moved, and dug two rosy fists into his tight 
closed eyes. Then he rolled over and then back again, 
and then with a mighty stretch, and a frowning blink 
at the light, the dark eyes opened on the two fair faces 
bending over him. 

He lay for a moment quietly looking up at them, first 
at the one, then at the other. Then he stretched out 
his arms to his mother and said softly and joyfully, with 
a tone of doubtful hope in it, as though the vision might 
vanish if he spoke out loud, 

“ Mutterchen ?” and in a moment he was in her arms, 
and the little dark head was in her neck. 

She did not speak, but clasped him to her, and kissed 
him, kissed him, kissed him, while the little arms knitted 
tight round her neck,and he strained her to him as though 
he never would let go. 

The Princess felt a dimness in her own eyes, and per- 
haps she thought of Rolf the King, drinking himself 
drunk up there in the Castle, while all the land below 
simmered in revolt, and perhaps she thought of Count 
Albert of Saxelstein, and prayed that some time she too 
might know this joy of joys. 

She beckoned to Leona and stole softly out of the room. 

It was quite half an hour before Alix opened the door 
of the inner room and came out, with a happy light in 
her face, and said to the Princess, 

“ He wants to bid you good-night, and then he will 
lie down and go to sleep.” 

Alicia went in with her and found the small boy stand- 
ing in the corner of his bed. 

“ Good-night, Aunt Alicia,” he said, “ and thank you 
for bringing Mother to see me. Bring her soon again, 
please.” 

It was hard to leave him, but they had to get back, 
and with a last fervent kiss and a heartfelt prayer Alix 
turned her back and signified her readiness to go. 

She kissed Leona on both cheeks at leaving, and 
begged her to watch over hini carefully. 


DOWN MANY STAIRS TO HEAVEN. 20g 

“ With my life, Madame,” said the girl, and they fol- 
lowed Ibach down the stairs. 

“ Is he quite safe here ?” asked the mother while they 
stood in the coach-hoiise. 

“ Safer here. Highness, than you who are in the Castle,” 
said the big man. “ At a signal from me five hundred 
men would be round the house and every one ready to 
give his life for the boy.” 

“ Why ?” 

“ Those are our orders from Dr. Ziemer, Highness. I 
cannot yet say more.” 

The big man opened the door and made as though to 
accompany them. 

“ No further, my friend,” said the Princess. “ I will 
send you word when we can come again. When does 
Dr. Ziemer return ?” 

“ I cannot say. Highness. It depends upon those 
others in the country. Maybe to-morrow, maybe next 
day, I do not know. But I must see to your safety, 
Highness.” 

“ Not a step further. We are perfectly safe.” 

“ Thunder in Heaven, Highness, if an^Thing happened 
to either of you. Dr. Ziemer would never forgive me.” 

“ But nothing will happen to us, my good Iback, and 
I cannot have you accompany us. Now, on your word, 
Ibach, you are not to follow us even at a distance.” 

The big fellow stammered and hesitated like a school- 
boy caught in a fault. 

“ Highness,” he said, “ how am I to obey both Dr. 
Ziemer and yourself ?” 

“You have got to obey me, Ibach, of course.” 

“ Very well. Highness, if you say so, but ” 

“ I say so ;” she shook a slender finger at him threat- 
eningly, “ and I trust you.” 

All the same, when he had reluctantly closed the door 
with himself inside, and they had flitted to the end of the 
narrow street, she stood and peeped round the corner to 
make sure he was not following. Then, satisfied that 
Ibach was a man of his word, she led the way quickly 
through the ill-built and ill-lighted streets and lanes, till 
they came out once more on the country road. They 


210 


SOME PIATN TALK WITH A KINO. 


found the winding path among the rocks and bushes, 
and came at last to the stone pillar, and from there struck 
up to the screen of ivy behind which lay the little pos- 
tern door. 

Once during their sinuous progress Alix stopped in 
the belief that she saw a moving figure among the bould- 
ers and bushes, but she could not be sure that her eyes 
did not deceive her in the darkness, and without voicing 
her fears she silently followed her companion. 

“ I cannot sufficiently thank you, cousin,” she said, 
when they stood once more in the Princess’s room up- 
stairs. “ My heart is whole again and I feel strong.” 

“ I have been more than thanked already,” said the 
Princess, and kissed her fervently. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 

Next day, the town being reported quiet, the King 
ventured forth to hunt boars in the woods of Brunewald. 
The townsmen paid no attention whatever to the caval- 
cade as it clattered through their streets. 

“ They are learning their lesson, Saxelstein,” said Rolf 
over his shoulder. “ There is not even a black look 
abroad to-day.” 

“ There seem to be no looks for us at all, your Maj- 
esty,” replied Saxelstein. “ It strikes me as unnatural. 
For myself I would sooner have black looks than none 
at all.” 

“ Ah ? Then what think you is the meaning of it ?” 

“ I know not, unless they are acting on Dr. Ziemer’s 
instructions, and waiting his promised peaceful solution.” 

“ Dr. Ziemer! Dr. Ziemer!” growled the King. “ What 
new scheme is he up to now ? He is at the bottom of 
all our troubles.” 

To Saxelstein’s mind the occasion lay nearer home, 


SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 21 1 

but he was too diplomatic to say so. It was for the peo- 
ple themselves who had grievances, and who would ben- 
efit by the repair of them, to make themselves unpleas- 
ant by saying so. 

The hunt passed off satisfactorily, and they returned 
to the Castle with the same studied avoidance of notice 
on the part of the townspeople. 

That night again the ladies were invited to join the 
King at dinner, and very reluctantly they accepted the 
invitation and obeyed the command. Their experiences 
were a repetition of those of the previons night, with 
the addition of the day’s sport as subject for discussion. 

The sudden quieting down of the people induced in 
the King the highest of spirits, and his stories and jokes 
became even more riotously unadapted to the society of 
ladies than they had been the night before. iVs they sat 
on the terrace next day, Alix stated emphatically that 
she would decline any further invitations to the King’s 
table. 

“ Say I am indisposed. That will be true, at all 
events.” 

“ But you can’t be indisposed all the time from now 
onwards, my dear.” 

“ Well, I would sooner leave the Castle than suffer as 
I did last night.” 

They were still arguing the matter when Prince Alex- 
ander and Saxelstein were announced. 

“ Help me, my friends, with this young lady,” said the 
Princess. “ She absolutely declines to dine at the King’s 
table again.” 

“ It is not to be wondered at,” said Prince Alexander 
gravely. “ He is becoming past bearing. Rolf always 
was a brute. I used to try to thrash it out of him at 
school, but it never had any effect. He always was a 
heartless, selfish little beast, and he always will be.” 

“ Don’t mind me,” said Alicia. “ I agree with every 
word of it.” 

“ Now what, I wonder, would be the result if I tried 
once more and gave him a piece of my mind and a thun- 
dering good li cki ng . ’ ’ 

“ Apoplectic fit for him,” said Saxelstein, “ and a 


2l2 


some: plain tALK WITH A KING. 


game at blind-man’s-buff in front of a file of musketry 
for you. As one of the house they might possibly let 
you take your conge with your eyes open.” 

Prince Alex nodded musingly. 

“ It might be worth it. It would smooth matters 
considerably, and not a soul on this earth would regret 
him.” 

“ And you ?” 

“ I would have the pleasure of knowing that the world 
was the cleaner for my having helped him out of it.” 

“ It is exactly that same spirit of careless indifference 
to everybody’s right and feelings,” he went on, “ which 
was in him as a boy, and which works out now in still 
coarser ways, that is raising the people against him, and 
threatening his ruin, if not that of the house. Events, 
I imagine, are marching much more rapidly than any 
of us think, or than appears on the surface. Dr. Ziemer 
is a very clever man. As a leader and a statesman he 
can turn this Grumiaux round his little finger. Every- 
thing is ready for a general rising c>f protest against 
Rolf’s brutalities and bad faith. Suddenly things quiet 
down in most remarkable fashion. Nothing is appar- 
ently further from the minds of the people than the idea 
of a revolution. And why ? Because the astute Dr. 
Ziemer hints that he sees his way to the attainment of 
his ends — or the people’s ends, I will say, in justice to 
him — by other and less violent methods. What these 
may be is beyond me, but there you have the present 
situation of affairs.” 

“ What the deuce can this new card be that the old 
boy has discovered ?” said Saxelstein. 

“ I have racked my brains and exhausted myself in 
enquiries, and can get no clue,” said Prince Alex. 

The two girls said nothing, but for a moment their 
eyes met, and to both of them occurred the same thought, 
that Dr. Ziemer’s trump card was probably to be found 
in his own house, and slept at night in a little brass- 
railed bed, watched over by a dark- eyed Chilian girl. 

As the two men went down the stairs together. Prince 
Alex, reverting to the idea that was working in him, 
said to the Count, 


SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 213 

“ I have a great mind to try the effect of a thrashing 
on Rolf. I should feel greatly interested to see how he 
would take it.” 

“ The game is not worth the candle, old man. Leave 
him alone. Unless I am mistaken, there is more than 
one man abroad whose wrongs will only be righted by 
the spilling of the royal blood. There was a fellow 
dodging among the trees at Brunewald yesterday with a 
gun and an evil eye, and he only skulked away when he 
found me watching him all the time instead of the 
bears.” 

Next day, in answer to the usual formal invitation to 
dine with the King, both ladies excused themselves on 
plea of indisposition. 

The next day the same. 

On the third day, when a similar message had been 
returned, the ladies were, as was their custom of an 
afternoon, sitting on the terrace having tea with Prince 
Alexander and Count Saxelstein, when there came a 
peremptory knock on the outer door of the Princess’s 
apartments, and to ’Toinette opening it, with a saucy 
speech on her lips, a blue and white page announced 
sharply, 

“ His Majesty the King.” 

’Toinette, whose budding genius as yet hardly rose to 
such emergency as this, curtsied deferentially as the 
King appeared, and backed before him towards the 
open window. 

“ Why,” said the King, devouring her with his eyes as 
he followed her, “ where has this pretty face been hid- 
den all this time ?” 

’Toinette bridled and blushed, and slipped through 
the window and announced abruptly, 

“ Highnesses, — the King.” 

“ So,” said the King, as they stood up to receive him, 
“ this then is the form which our indisposition takes. And 
these gentlemen, I presume, are assisting at the cure.” 

Alicia bowed and no one spoke. 

“ Come,” he said roughly, “ explain matters, if you 
please.” 

“ As your Majesty says,” said the Princess, “ this is 


214 SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 

the form our indisposition takes. We do not care to 
expose ourselves to the indecencies of your Majesty’s 
table.” 

“ Ah ! And why this sudden spasm of virtue, young 
lady ? My society has been good enough for you 
hitherto.” 

“ It has got worse of late, your Majesty.” 

“ It is you,” he said, turning wrathfully on Alix, 
“ who have put this saucy jade up to this. She has 
found no fault before.” 

“ Yes, to my shame,” said the Princess, “ I have suf- 
fered in silence till my ears have tingled, and I have 
blushed all over v/ith disgust.” 

“ Tut, tut !” said the King. “ If your brother’s so- 
ciety is not good enough for you, you had better quit 
it.” 

“ The sooner the better,” said the Princess boldly. 

He turned again to Alix as though to say something 
to her, but checked himself, and left them without an- 
other word. 

The four on the terrace looked at one another, as the 
survivors in a fight look round to see what casualties 
have occurred. Then Prince Alex rose and followed 
the King, and Alicia with her eyes full of trouble 
said, 

“ This is the beginning of the end.” 

Then she fell a- weeping wdth her arm on the stone 
balustrade and her head in it, and Count Albert did his 
best to comfort her. 

Prince Alex follow’ed the King quietly down passage 
after passage, and entered the royal apartments close on 
his heels. He closed the door, and then, speaking very 
quietly, said, 

“ See, here, Rolf, I am going to say to you here what 
I did not care to say before the ladies. They are per- 
fectly right, and you know it. Your language at table 
is low and disgusting and such as no woman has any 
right to be subjected to.” 

The King’s face was the colour of a ripe plum. His 
eyes stood out from it and glowed balefully. His neck 


SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 21 5 

Was like a fresh cut steak. Prince Alex feared he was 
in for the fit which Saxelstein had prophesied. 

“ ! ! !” said the King. “What do you 

mean ? You forget, sir, who you are speaking to.” 

“ I am speaking to my cousin Rolf at present,” said 
the Prince, “ and I don’t forget that I thrashed him many 
a time at school for his blackguardisms, and I’ve come 
to tell him that I’m quite prepared to do it again if nec- 
essary.” 

“ ! ! !” foamed the King. 

“ You are just as big a blackguard now as you were 
then, and you will be to the end, I fear. It’s your nature 
and you never tried to cure it. It’s exactly the same 
thing on a bigger scale that is raising the country against 
you, and is likely to bring the house down about our 
ears. For myself I care little for that. God knows your 
shoes and your kingdom have no attractions for me. I 
have done my best to help you, but I won’t stand by any 
longer and see you insult the ladies of your own house, as 
you have done those two, day after day.” 

“ Aha !” said the King. “ So it is the pretty face of 
the new-comer that is answerable for this sudden out- 
burst of virtuous indignation all round.” 

“ That your sister has stood it so long has surprised 
me greatly. She is of your own family, however, and it 
was for her to object, and not for a comparative stranger 
like myself. But the Countess Alicia, a stranger, a 
guest ” 

“ Perhaps understands these things better than my 
straitlaced cousin imagines,” laughed Rolf brutally. 
“ Why is she here ? Because I felt it my duty as head 
of the house to right as far as I could the wrong that 
rascal Karl had done her.” 

“ Karl!” ejaculated Prince Alex, and when he had re- 
covered from his first surprise, “ Karl never did any 
woman wrong.” 

“ No ? And yet your pretty Countess is but one of 
brother Karl’s little episodes. Yes, Karl, I tell you!” as 
the Prince opened his mouth for another protest, “ Karl 
the immaculate — Karl the magnanimous — Karl the gal- 
lant, gallant in love as in war. How many more wives 


2i6 


SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 


he has left, God knows, but this is one of them, or at all 
events she says so. Man alive,” he continued, in a sud- 
den frank descent into his natural brutality, “ do you 
suppose I would not have sent the hussy away with a 
flea in her ear if it had not been for her pretty face?” 

“ I do not believe it,” said Prince Alex. 

“ Go and ask her,” said the King. 

The immediate consequences of this little social out- 
break were not so disastrous as the Princess’s fears had 
led her to expect. She had feared that the result of 
Prince Alex’s interview with the King would be that the 
Prince would leave Roystadt, and that Saxelstein would 
go with him. As to the probable results to herself and 
Alix, she could not gauge them, but she knew well enough 
that Rolf’s nature was capable of anything, and she 
looked for trouble. 

The King, however, considered that he had come off 
decidedly best in the encounter with Prince Alex, and 
knowing well the value of the Prince’s presence and 
advice in the present critical condition of affairs in the 
state, he was content to let matters rest as they were. 
As to whether Prince Alex would be equally content he 
was doubtful and somewhat anxious, and so he deemed 
it best for the time being at all events, to let the ladies 
fellow their own whims as to when, where and how they 
dined. 

Neither Prince Alex nor the Count put in an appear- 
ance at table that night, and the King was free to in- 
dulge his coarse humour to its fullest. Dinner time, 
however, found him in a gloomy frame of mind, from 
which no amount of wine sufficed to elevate him. For 
some of Prince Alex’s outspoken truths had struck home, 
and home truths are, to small minds in high places, a 
most unpalatable and indigestible form of nutriment. 

Prince Alex did not, however, leave the Castle. Pie 
sought and obtained a long private interview with Prin- 
cess Alicia, and in the course of it she told him all she 
knew about their cousin Alix, and for further informa- 
tion referred him to Dr. Ziemer. 

Prince Alex was astonished beyond words at the in- 


SOME PLAIN TALK WITH A KING. 21/ 

formation she gave him, and was as much puzzled as 
she was herself. 

He saw at once of course the bearing Alix’s story would 
have on himself and the succession, if it should prove in 
some extraordinary way that her marriage with Karl was 
all in order, but this had less than no etfect upon the warm 
feeling she had inspired in him from the first moment he 
saw her. As he had said to the King, the prospect of 
the crown held few” attractions for him, though if it fell 
to him he would undoubtedly do his duty by it, and 
would strive, with all the might that was in him, to up- 
hold the highest traditions of the house. Infinitely more 
attractive to him was the idea of assisting this sweet 
dark-eyed girl to her rights and her boy’s, if, indeed, 
they had any rights at all. And so he stopped on, though 
holding much aloof from the King, and his manner to 
Alix took on a new strain of chivalrous sympathy which 
— not knowing of Alicia’s disclosures — puzzled while it 
pleased her, and gave to her life a new flavour which 
she would hardly have confessed, and could hardly have 
explained even to herself. 

One more visit the two girls paid to the little Karl at 
Dr. Ziemer’s house. The little fellow was so wildly de- 
lighted to see his mother again, that it was harder than 
ever for her to part with him, and she seriously debated 
with Alicia the idea of not returning to the Castle. But 
the Princess was firm on that point. 

“ We must be guided by Dr. Ziemer. He understands 
the roots of things and we do not,” she said. “ When 
will he be back, Ibach?” 

“ Highness,” said the big man, “ it may be days yet. 
Outside it has been difficult even for him to keep the peo- 
ple quiet. Yet keeping them quiet means the saving of 
thousands of lives, and more than life to the House of 
Rothstein. He is doing noble work, Highness, and the 
rest must wait.” 

Alix sighed and returned with the Princess to the 
Castle. Quitting it would mean an open rupture with 
the King, and that, without Dr. Ziemer’s express permis- 
sion, she believed it would be unwise to bring about. 

Long and heavily she pondered matters during th^ 


2i8 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAY/. 


night watches, and many times and bitterly she regretted 
ever having set foot in Vascovia. Far better to have 
stopped in England and earned a frugal living in any way 
that might have offered, she thought, not having had 
any experience of the difficulties of so doing. 

Her load was a heavy one. “ Hope for the best,” said 
Dr. Ziemer. The best she hoped for was proof of the 
legality of her marriage. For the crown for her boy she 
cared little, biit the thought of going through life with a 
stain upon herself and a brand upon him was intoler- 
able. 

The days dragged heavily for the four within the Cas- 
tle, with the knowledge upon them that, beneath the ap- 
parently quiet surface of things, great events were 
brewing, involving strange changes which in all proba- 
bility would only be reached by the red road. For that 
Rolf would throw up the sponge without a fight was 
beyond hope. Dr. Ziemer, they knew, was working hard 
to confine the struggle to as small an area as possible, 
and that meant that the final issue would take place 
within the walls of the Castle of Roystadt itself. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IN THE ROYAL TIGER's CLAW. 

Two nights later there rang out through the darkness 
in which the town lay wrapped, the dull sound of shoot- 
ing. Alix, whose doubts and fears were ever heaviest in 
the night, sprang from her bed and peered down from 
her window. But she could see nothing, though shots 
and shouts still came echoing up out of the gloom. She 
slipped on a dressing-gown and tapped at the door of 
Alicia’s room, which adjoined her own, and receiving no 
answer, turned the handle and went in. The Princess 
had her window open and was hanging out of it, strain- 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAW. 219 

ing eyes and ears to make out what was going on down 
below. 

“ I hoped you had not heard it,” she said, as Alix put 
her arm around her, “ Something is happening down 
there. I wonder what.” 

“ Yes, I wonder,” said Alix with a sigh. “ I wish I 
had never come to trouble you all.” 

“ It is probably only some of Rolf’s foreigners got into 
trouble with the townsmen. What time is it?” 

The great bell of the cathedral down below boomed 
out two heavy strokes which rolled and trembled on the 
night air and answered her question. 

“ Two o’clock,” said the Princess. “ It can’t be that 
then. They are all in quarters hours ago. What can it 
be, I wonder?” 

But wondering brought no answer, and at last they 
went back to bed. 

Early next morning Alix was wakened from a troubled 
sleep by ’Toinette, whose usually bright face was sober 
and somewhat scared-looking. 

“ Highness, you are wanted.” 

“ Wanted? By whom, ’Toinette?” 

“ Lieutenant Tautz is here. Highness, the one who 
squints, to conduct you to the King.” 

“ Tell him I will be ready in a few minutes. Help me 
to dress, ’Toinette.” 

The sudden summons made her nervous, and ’Toinette 
was not much better, but between them she got dressed. 

The Princess was still sleeping when Alix went into 
her room. 

“ Oh, my dear, what can he want with you?” she cried, 
when Alix had explained matters. “ Whatever it is, re- 
member there are three besides Dr. Ziemer who will be 
thinking of you, and working for you all the time.” 

Alix kissed her and went to the door, outside which 
Lieutenant Tautz stood waiting with half-a-dozen of his 
men. The Lieutenant saluted and stated briefly that ' 
his instructions were to conduct her to the King. 

They went along, not to the King’s morning- room 
where she had see him before, but to the council cham- 
ber^ a more formidable and business-like apartment with 


220 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAW. 


a heavy oaken table and a dozen heavy oaken chairs, 
with a larger one at the head of the table. In this sat 
Rolf the King, heavy-eyed and threatening, and at his 
right hand sat Grumiaux his minister. 

The King dismissed the Lieutenant with a wave of the 
hand, and motioned Alix to any chair she chose to take 
on that side of the table. She took the nearest and sat 
down. 

“ So, Madame,” broke out the King, “ welcomed as a 
guest, you turn out to be a schemer and hatcher of plots 
against us!” 

“ I do not understand your Majesty.” 

“ Do you not ? How innocent it is ! It comes with a 
plaintive little story on its pretty lips, and begs our help, 
but forgets to tell the whole of the story. What about 
your boy, Madame ? Why have we never heard from you 
a single word about him ? Why is it left to us to discover 
these things for ourselves ? Why did you not bring him 
here with you ?” 

A great fear took hold of her. Could the fighting in 
the night have any connection with this morning’s in- 
quiry ? 

“ Your Majesty sent for me only. I knew not what my 
reception might be.” 

“ So you left the boy with Dr. Ziemer ?” 

She bowed her head, and waited in fear and trem- 
bling for what might be coming. 

“ Dr. Ziemer is a factious plotter. We have thought 
it best, Madame, that your boy should be in our keep- 
ing.” 

She was white with fear, but the sweet face hardened 
and stiffened in the determination not to show it. 

“ You will write a letter here, at once, requesting those 
in whose charge he is to bring him here without delay.” 

Ah ! then they had not got him yet. Her heart light- 
ened but she remained silent. 

Grumiaux pushed paper along the table towards her, 
the last part of the way with his crutched stick. Pens 
and ink lay before her. 

“ Be so good a? to write at once, Madame,” 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER's CLAW. 221 

She shook her head but said nothing. The King 
drummed on the table impatiently. 

“ Now, Madame!” 

“ I will not write,” she said. 

“ And why ?” 

“ He is in Dr. Ziemer’s charge, and I am content that 
he should remain there.” 

“ And you are not quite sure he will be safe with me ?” 

She returned him no answer. 

“ Then,” said the King, “ if you won’t have him 
brought to you, I will have him brought to me.” 

“ My poor little lad,” she said, and then, forgetful for 
the moment of herself, she turned passionately on the 
King and cried, 

“ What do you want with us ? Let us go away, and 
do you forget that we ever troubled you.” 

“ It is too late, Madame. I never asked you to come. 
I did not even know of your existence. But since you 
do exist, and did come, you — interest me.” 

Her hand dropped to the table, palm down, in a ges- 
ture of deprecation and regret. 

“ Will you answer me a question or two, Madame ?” 
said Grumiaux in his grating voice. “ You say you 
were married to Prince Karl in Brazil.” 

“ Yes,” she answered in a dull level tone. 

“ Have you any proof of that alleged marriage ?” 

“ My marriage certificate.” 

“ And where is that ?” 

“ Dr. Ziemer has it.” 

“ Dr. Ziemer, Dr. Ziemer !” growled the King. 

“ Can you tell me the date of your marriage ?” asked 
Grumiaux. 

“ September 14, 1887. 

“ You are absolutely certain of the date ?” 

“ What a question !” 

The King shot an anxious look at him, and seemed 
about to speak, but Grumiaux raised his hand. 

“ And when do you say your boy was born ? And 
where ?” 

“ At Valparaiso, on the 30th of October of the follow- 
ing year.” 


222 IN THE ROYAL TIGER 'S CLAW. 

“ Properly registered there ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Under what name ?” 

“ Karl von Rothstein.” 

“ Was your husband, whoever he was, passing by that 
name at the time ?” 

“ He had adopted the name of Charles Roustaine, as 
mv father had done before him.” 

Why did he do that ?” 

“ Because he had done with his title and position for 
ever. He wanted to break with the past completely and 
live his life as pleased him best.” 

“ And your father ? Where v/as he ?” 

“ He died on the Amazon,” and quite as an after- 
thought she added, 

“ His body was sent home to Roystadt after being 
embalmed by the Indians by my husband’s instruc- 
tions.” 

The effect on the two men surprised her. Their eyes 
met for a moment, and the King’s eyes blinked angrily. 
The minister’s lips twitched at the corners like those of 
a dog when its bone is in danger. 

“ And why was that done ?” 

“ My husband said that a Rothstein must lie at Roy- 
stadt.” 

“ That is the custom,” said Grumiaux suavely. “ That 
is why Prince Karl’s body lies here alongside his wife’s, 
and that is why ” 

“ Ah!” she cried, half-rising in her seat, a great light 
of sudden knowledge shining in her eyes, “ I see, I see !” 
and then she stopped short, and not' another word could 
they get from her. And at last the King clapped his 
hands angrily and Lieutenant Tautz entered. 

“ Conduct Madame to her apartment. You are an- 
swerable for her.” 

The Lieutenant saluted, and Alix followed him. He 
led the way not to the Princess’s apartments, but through 
passage after passage to the opposite side of the Castle, 
and ushered her at last into a large room the windows 
of which gave on to the great courtyard. 

The room was large and lofty, The sun beat fiercely 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAW. 223 

on the windows, but they were shaded on the out- 
outside with heavy Venetian shutters, and the light that 
filtered in through the turned-down slats was refresh- 
ingly dim. The only furniture in the room was a bed 
and dressing-table and a couple of chairs. In one wall 
was the door of the large dress cupboard which Alicia 
had told her v^as a feature in almost every room of the 
Castle. 

A woman rose at their entrance from one of the chairs 
near the window, and made an apology for a courtesy. 

“ Fraulein Groeb, this is the lady,” said Lieutenant 
Tautz. “ You will attend her.” 

“ Please ?” said Fraulein Groeb with a questioning 
snap of her small, pale blue eyes. 

Lieutenant Tautz, however, was a man of few words. 
He saluted Alix, turned on his heel, and clinked out of 
the room. 

She heard him growl an order to his men, and then 
their footsteps died away along the passage, but, from 
the clink of steel outside the door of her room, she knew 
that some of them had been left behind, and that she 
was to consider herself a prisoner. 

Alix dropped into a chair by the window and looked 
out at such bits of the courtyard as she could see through 
the slats of the shutters. A company of soldiers was 
drilling there and she watched them as intently as if her 
own boy had been one of them. 

She was evidently to be on a different footing from 
that she had hitherto occupied. She was no longer a 
guest but a prisoner. And they were going to bring lit- 
tle Karl to the Castle. Would they let her see him ? 
Would they be able to wrest him from Dr. Zeimer ? 
she wondered, and from Ibach and his five hundred 
men ? And if they got him, would he be safe in their 
hands ? 

The soldiers had marched away out of sight of the 
window, but she could hear the tread of their feet echo- 
ing up the courtyard, and the sharp words of command. 
Then there came from somewhere near the faint sound 
of a child’s merry laughter, Her heart gave an aching 


224 IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAW. 

throb. It brought her boy so near to her. She pressed 
her hand to her side to stop the craving pain of it. 

“ Whose child is that ?” she asked of Fraulein Groeb. 

“ Please ?” 

“ Whose child is that I hear laughing ?” 

Fraulein Groeb shook her head. 

“ I do not know, Madame.” 

She wondered if the Princess would learn where she 
was. Even if she did, it was not likely she could do 
anything to help her. And Prince Alex, he was a good 
and honourable man she was sure, but what could he 
do ? He was a guest like herself and as powerless. Dr. 
Ziemer, what could he do against the King on the top 
of his rock ? 

Still somehow she did not feel utterly broken and 
downcast. There was some indistinct feeling of hope- 
fulness within her. For a time she did not remember 
what it was. Then it flashed across her mind again. 
Of course ! It was her father’s body they had buried here 
in Roystadt, thinking it was Prince Karl’s, though how 
that could have come about was past her comprehension, 
for her husband had told her he had sent letters home 
along with the body. The meaning of it all came to her 
later. But in her own mind there was no doubt about 
it, and that disposed of half the puzzling cloud that 
overhung her. As to Prince Karl’s marriage with Prin- 
cess Sophie, that she could not at present fathom. 

When did Princess Sophie die ? Ah ! In another flash 
she saw that everything would depend upon that. 

She wondered if this woman would know. 

“ Can you tell me when Princess Sophie died ? Prince 
Karl’s wife, you know.” 

“ Please ?” and the blue eyes blinked questionally. 

“ The Princess Sophie, wife of Prince Karl. Can you 
tell me when she died ?” 

“ I do not know, Madame.” 

A most impossible woman was Fraulein Groeb, but a 
model jailer. 

The day dragged slowly with nothing to occupy it but 
her thoughts and fears. More than once she caught, or 
fancied she caught, that faint sound of boyish laughter, 


IN THE ROYAL TIGER’S CLAW. 225 

and many, many times she caught herself listening ea- 
gerly for it again. If was a boy, she was sure, and just 
about her own boy’s age. Happy little lad, born with a 
head no higher than his fellows’, and safe and happy in 
his obscurity. How she would like to see the merry 
little laugher. It would comfort her even to see another 
mother’s child happy. And then the ache and the crav- 
ing to see her own boy all came back upon her — an ac- 
tual physical pain, — a hunger and thirst of the heart that 
twisted the body itself in the extremit}^ of its desire. 

Never was so long and dull a day. Fraulein Groeb 
was not a cheerful companion, and her exasperating 
trick of pretending that she could not hear, or could not 
understand, anything that was said to her until it had 
been said twice, got on Alix’s nerves so completely, that 
she felt she must either get up and shake her, or else say 
nothing at all to her. 

At intervals the Fraulein slipped quietly out and re- 
turned with food, carefully and ostentatiously locking 
the door each time. But Alix could eat nothing. She 
was over- wrought with anxiety, and was glad to seek 
her bed while the twilight still lingered in the court- 
yard, though it was dark enough inside her room. 

Fraulein Groeb drew out a mattress from under the 
bed and retired to rest also, and snored so heartily that 
Alix at once envied and loathed her. 

Once in the stillness of the night, during a temporary 
pause in the Fraulein’s cradle song, occasioned by a sud- 
den change of position, Alix heard a shuffle and a sigh 
outside her door as of one on duty anxiously awaiting 
the relief to come along, and at the same moment the 
faint cry of a child fell on her ear and sent her sobbing, 
from its sharp reminder of her own lonely little lad, cal- 
ling out in his sleep, perhaps, in just the same way, for 
the mother who could not come to him. 

She heard the cry still, and sat up in bed to listen. 

Poor little lad ! Was there no one to comfort him ? 
It seemed to her to come from the window. She stole 
out of bed and pressed her face against the pane, but 
all was dark and still outside, and she could see nothing. 


226 


THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 


Then it seemed to her to come from the door and she 
stole across the floor and laid her ear to it. 

“ Please ?” 

Fraulein Groeb was sitting up questioningly. 

“ I thought I heard a child crying. Where can it 
be ?” 

“ Please ?” 

“ Listen ! Can’t you hear a child crying. Where is 
it, do you think ?” 

“ I do not know, Madame.” 

The crying ceased, and Alix crept back to her bed. 
She fell to wondering again what the King meant to do 
with her and her boy, — whether Dr. Ziemer would be 
able to keep him out of the King’s clutches, — what 
Alicia and Prince Alex would and could do, and won- 
dering, at last she fell asleep. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 

The sun was shining brightly outside, and filtering 
subduedly into her room, when she woke and she heard 
the everlasting drilling going on in the courtyard. She 
rose and dressed and sat at the window, and looked 
through the narrow slits of the shutters at segments of 
the soldiers as they marched to and fro. 

When Fraulein Groeb slipped away to bring in break- 
fast, she went quickly to the cupboard in the wall, full 
of a hope that had come to her some time in the night. 
She pulled hard at the third peg, but it remained firm, 
and when Fraulein Groeb returned she was sitting 
quietly at the window peering out into the courtyard. 

She forced herself to eat something, but there was no 
taste in it, and she had no enjoyment in it, and she re- 
turned to her seat at the window. 


THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 22/ 

Ah ! That boyish laughter again, outside in the court- 
yard this time, surely. She strained and twisted her 
eyes almost out of her head in hopes of catching sight 
of him. Just the sight of him would give her pleasure 
even if it brought her pain too. 

And then suddenly she stood up, grasping blindly at 
the window-frame, breathing hard and short, and glar- 
ing out between the shutter slats with head bent for- 
ward and craning up and down as the tiger in its cage 
eyes the distant sight of its food. 

The soldiers were marching and countermarching 
and wheeling to and fro, and on the further side of the 
courtyard, watching them, stood her own little Karl, 
shouting with glee, and beating the air with a tiny stick 
to the tune of the soldier’s tread, and close behind him 
stood Leona. 

The mother’s heart leaped up into her throat. She 
choked it down with a sob and stood watching, watch- 
ing, devouring her boy with hungry eyes and powerless 
to do more than watch in silence, — a silence that al- 
most drove her frantic with the repression of it. 

The soldiers marched away up the courtyard. Baby 
Karl and Leona followed them, and passed out of her 
sight, the small boy aping the big men’s stride, and 
Leona laughing at his endeavours. 

She gave a great sigh, and the courtyard seemed to 
darken, and the sunlight became a sickly glare. She 
waited and watched, eager eyed, breathless, straining, 
and listening, till the tramp, tramp, tramp came nearer 
again, the dissected bodies came in sight, and across the 
courtyard again came her boy and his nurse. 

What a splendid little fellow he was! Sturdy and 
strong, and evidently, for the moment at all events, 
quite happy in spite of his mother’s absence. For the 
space of a hundreth part of a second she felt hurt at his 
happiness without her, but that passed even as it came, 
and left her only grateful that he was too young for 
trouble to trouble. She hung breathless on his every 
movement, and thanked God for the sight of him, 
though at times her heart sank to think of him here 
in the Red King’s hands. 


228 


THROUCxH THE SHUTTERS. 


The soldiers marched away again, and this time they 
did not return. Anxiously she waited, but they had 
gone for the time being and she saw no more of her 
boy that day, though she waited at the window till the 
light began to fail in the courtyard and her own room 
was filled with shadows. 

The night passed in eager anticipation of the mor- 
row, and the first heavy tramp outside found her at 
the shuttered window peering forth in anxious search 
of her boy. 

He came at last, and the weary prisoner filled her 
empty heart with such intermittent glimpses of him as 
his irrepressible activity would permit, until morning 
drill was over and he disappeared along with his demi- 
gods. 

The afternoon found him there again. The soldiers 
were a novelty to him, and he evidently could not get 
too much of them. 

Once in her eager desire for him she beat on the 
window in hope of attracting his attention, and Frau- 
lein Groeb woke up from an after dinner stupor and 
said, 

“ Please ?” 

Little Karl glanced towards the window for a moment, 
then turned again to his men, and beat time to their 
marching with his stick. Then they wheeled up the 
courtyard and he was gone. 

How long was this to go on, she wondered, and how 
long could her starving heart stand the strain of this 
Tantalus denial. She felt very weary of it all, and but 
for her. boy would have asked for nothing better than to 
lie down and sleep and wake no more. 

It was an easy thing to lie down, but the compassing 
of these (things was beyond her. Fortunately, else per- 
chance had this story ended here, so over- wrought was 
she and so sick of life and its outlook. 

As she lay about midnight, staring with wide eyes in- 
to the darkness above, a sound in the courtyard caught 
her ear. It was repeated and resolved itself into the 
shuffling tread of the mustering of a body of men. 

What could they be at ? She crept to the window and 


TimOUGlI TItE SHUTTERS. 229 

peered out, and even as she looked there came a sharp 
low word of command, the shuffling settled down into a 
regular tread, and with the light of a single torch flicker- 
ing on their sloped arms, the armed band marched 
away towards the big gates like one of those fabled 
snakes which carries a flaming jewel in its head. 

What midnight raid was this they were bound upon, 
she wondered. It boded ill for somebody, and most 
likely for some of her friends, known or unknown. She 
could not sleep. She would sit and watch for their re- 
turn. 

It was a long and weary wait. At times she thought 
she heard distant shouts and shots, but the shuttered 
windows muffled the sound, and she could not be sure. 

But they came back at last, and a gruesome return it 
was. 

She heard a sudden commotion at the far end of the 
courtyard where the great gates were. Then she heard 
panting oaths and the staggering false steps of the 
bearers of a heavy burden. Then the sickly glare of the 
torches came wavering along the ground, casting gro- 
tesque shadows. Then she stood up, peering through 
the narrow slits of the shutters with wide eyes of amaze- 
ment and horror, for the burden which eight sweating 
troopers carried, stumbling and cursing, up the courtyard, 
was a coffin, placed crosswise on two ambulance stretch- 
ers. 

The ominous procession passed out of her limited vis- 
ion and left her standing there shaken and shivering. 

Next morning with a peremptory knock Lieutenant 
Tautz entered the room, said a word to Fraulein Groeb, 
and requested Alix to follow him. 

What now, she wondered. More questioning ? More 
threats ? Well, let King Rolf and his Grumiaux do their 
worst. They had got her and they had got her boy. 
What more did they want, unless it was to get rid of 
them altogether ? 

She followed the Lieutenant, nerving herself for any 
further trial that might be imposed upon her. 

He halted at length before a door at the end of a pas- 


230 


THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 


sage, opened it, bowed to her to enter, and immedi- 
ately closed it behind her. 

She found herself in a passage like the hallway of a 
house. Several rooms opened off it, and the doors of all 
stood wide open. Facing her, at the end of the small 
hall was a sitting-room, softly carpeted, and furnished 
with lounges and deep-cushioned chairs, and tables 
spread with books and magazines. The morning sun 
streamed in through the high windows standing open to 
the sweet morning air, and filled the room with a sense 
of freshness and delight. She felt as a caged bird may 
feel when its prison door is left open and it flutters out 
into the wide heaven of freedom. 

She waited, wondering, but no one came to her, nor 
any sound from any of the rooms, till at last the invita- 
tion of the bright room in front was too much for her, 
and she walked forward into it. 

The other rooms were bedrooms, and a quick glance 
in passing showed her that in them also the appointments 
were all of the best. 

The room she entered was empty and she walked to 
the nearest window and drew in a deep breath of enjoy- 
ment at the sweetness of sun and air and the deep blue 
of the sky and the width and beauty of all the glorious 
world outside. 

She leaned out of the window to get nearer to it all, 
and was still drinking it all in, in great draughts of 
enjoyment, when a sound in the room caused her to turn, 
and with a scream of joy little Karl sprang up into her 
arms, laughing, and crying, and clasping her till his face 
grew crimson. 

“My boy! My boy! My own little one !” 

Sun and sky and all the gloiy of the world disappeared 
for her, for this sweet rosy face, with the lovelight shin- 
ing through the dark eyes, was all heaven and earth to 
her starving mother heart. 

Leona stood in the doorway and waited till their first 
greetings were over. Then she came forward, her dark 
face all aglow with pleasure. 

“ At last, Madame, you have come. We have awaited 
you, oh, so eagerly.” 


THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 


^31 

Alix was silent for a moment, and then said quietly, 

“ Yes, I have come. And how has my boy been, 
Leona ?” 

“ Just as good as good, Madame, as he always is, and 
he has done his best to be happy in spite of your ab- 
sence.” 

“ And, mother,” broke in Karl, “ there are soldiers, 
lots of them, and I march with them in the courtyard. 
And there is one window shutted, because there is a mad 
woman inside with a bad eye, and if she looks at me it 
will make me mad too, so I keep at the other side. And 
you won’t go away again, Miitterchen, will you ?” 

“ Not if I can help it, little one.” 

“ What a pretty room you have, Miitterchen. Mayn’t 
I stop here with yoit always now ? It’s ever so much 
nicer than ours. Ours looks out into the courtyard and 
when the soldiers are gone there is nothing to see. But 
there were soldiers near our door in the passage, only 
they weren’t allowed to talk to me. Do let me live here 
with you, Miitterchen, won’t you ?” 

How could she explain to him that she did not even 
know if they had the right to be where they were ? 

“ Who brought you in here, Karl ?” she asked. 

“ The tall officer with the spurs and the crooked eyes. 
He just opened the door and closed it behind us, and we 
came right in, and there you were.” 

She could not fathom the intention of this new experi- 
ence, but there was so much in her life of late that was 
past her understanding, that she was resolved to take 
things as they came and bear them as she could. She 
was grateful that this present change was for the better, 
and tended, even though it might be but temporarily, 
to the lightening of her load. 

Surfeited for the moment with kisses and caresses, 
little Karl slipped down, and boy-like was busily investi- 
gating his new surroundings. He drummed a few notes 
on a piano which stood open in one corner, peeped into 
the books and magazines on the table, glanced at the 
paintings on the walls, and finally pushed wide one of 
the tall windows which opened down to the floor, and 
found himself on one of the hanging terraces of the 


THROUGH THE SHUTTERS. 


232 

castle — a platform hewn out of the rock and surrounded 
with a stone battlement. 

Alix meanwhile was questioning Leona as to how they 
came to be in the Castle at all, and the girl told her of 
their sudden awakening in the early morning, three days 
before, to find Dr. Ziemer’s house surrounded by soldiers, 
Dr. Ziemer himself being still away, and an officer stand- 
ing in her bedroom ordering her and the boy to eome 
with him instantly — of their attempted rescue by the big 
man with the yellow beard and his friends, as the troops 
began the steep aseent to the Castle, — of the shots and 
shouts behind, while she and the boy were hurried on 
in front. 

Here Karl eame tugging at his mother’s hand and beg- 
ging her to come out into the sun, and, surprised at the 
liberty accorded them, she willingly rose and follow^ed 
him to the terrace. 

She looked hopefully along the massive sides of the 
Castle for Alieia’s rooms and terraee, but they were hid- 
den by a great projecting angle and she had to be con- 
tent with the friendliness of the magnificent view in front, 
which was the same as she had been accustomed to from 
the Princess’s windows, but with a wider range to the 
north. The same great buttress of roek and masonry 
hid the town from their view, all except a few straggling 
houses in the outskirts, though they could see the smoke 
of it sweeping past down below in thin blue wreaths and 
spirals, and the very sight of it seemed friendly and 
brought them a little nearer their fellows. 

Perched up there, half-way to heaven, in their eagle’s 
nest, they revelled all the morning in the sweetness of 
the sun and air, and the width and freedom of the world 
outside, though the mother’s heart was fearful that any 
moment some arbitrary summons might put a sudden 
end to it all. 

But the only summons they received was from a pleas- 
ant-faced, blue-and- white-clad maid, who appeared sud- 
denly in the open window, and announced that Madame 
was served, and when they went inside they found a 
table spread for luncheon, and to it they turned with 


THE king’s first VISIT. 


233 

appetites born of hope and companionship and the fresh 
morning air. 

The day passed all too quickly. Alix would gladly 
have had it last forever. Their meals were brought in 
by the same courteous attendant, and when night fell 
she lit the lamps, asked if Madame had any further 
commands, and withdrew. 

They put the boy to bed in the room Alix elected to 
occupy, and before retiring to rest herself, she went 
quietly to the door through which she had entered from 
the passage that morning, and tried it. It was locked, 
of course, and the caged bird could only be thankful that 
the cage was a bright and pleasant one, and not a gloomy 
prison as before. 

She slept with her boy in her arms, and the sound of 
his soft regular breathing, and the feel of his warm 
little body filled her heart with a gladness to which it had 
been a stranger for many a day. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

THE king’s first VISIT. 

The next day passed quietly and peacefully as the 
first, and a spark of hope began to grow in her. 

The next day the same, until the evening, when, just 
about the time when the sticks began to gather in little 
Karl’s eyes, the outer door opened noiselessly, and King 
Rolf came quietly into the sitting-room. 

Alix was smiling at the contradiction of the sturdy 
little fellow’s vehement assertions that he wasn’t not 
the least little bit sleepy, and the energetic application 
of tiny fists to heaw eyes, when, looking up, she saw the 
burly figure of the King behind her boy. The smile died 
from her lips, aud her heart gave a throb of foreboding. 

She started up in her surprise, but Rolf said as pleas- 
antly as his big voice would permit, 


THE king’s first VISIT. 


234 

“ Pray be seated, Madame. And this is your son ? A 
fine little fellow, in truth. No wonder you are proud of 
him. How goes it, little man ?” 

Karl put his fists behind him and gazed open-mouthed 
at the big man. The great red face did not attract 
him. 

“ Won’t you come and speak to me ? .said the King. 

Karl gazed at him with the wide-eyed fearlessness of 
babyhood, to whom a king is but a man to be liked or 
disliked for himself alone. 

“ Come,” said the King smiling. 

“ No,” said Karl with a decisive shake of the head. 

“ Like mother, like son,” said the King. 

“ Go, Karl,” said his mother, and the boy walked up 
to Rolf, and looked up at him without a trace of fear or 
shyness, but still with a manner that betrayed compul- 
sion. 

The King patted his head playfully, as a bear might 
caress a puppy, and said, 

“ Now I should say it was time little boys were in bed, 
and I wish to speak with your mother.” 

At a sign from Alix Leona carried him away, and the 
King drew a chair to the table opposite to her. 

I trust you find your surroundings comfortable, 
Madame ?” 

“ I thank you, they are comfortable, but my mind is 
not at ease.” 

“ No ?” he said, and for a time remained silent, and 
then, “ I think, Madame, you must recognize the futility 
of your claims.” 

“ I have made no claims,” she said quickly. “ I came 
with no such intention.” 

“ You claim to be the wife — widow I should say — of 
my brother Karl.” 

“ Ah, that of course. But I came only by his com- 
mand, and only to seek assistance lest my boy should 
come to want. Set us free and we will go far away and 
trouble you no more.” 

“ Unfortunately that cannot now be done. Had you 
come to me at first it might have been arranged. Now 
you have become a tool in thq hands of my enemies, who 


THE KTNC/S FIRST VISIT. 


^35 


are only too glad to find one to fit tlieir hands so well, 
without looking into the rights of the case. Now I have 
come,” he said, and his eyes roved boldly and freely over 
the fair face and slim figure of the girl before him, “ to 
make you a proposition. You think you and your boy 
have certain claims. I deny them, and I am in posses- 
sion — not only of the power but of yourself and the boy. 
I suggest that we compromise matters by a marriage. 
It would make a simple end of the whole matter.” 

“ By a marriage ? — I do not understand, — with you ?” 

“ With me of course. You didn’t suppose I was sug- 
gesting Grumiaux, did you ?” he said with a laugh. 

He came round the table towards her as though to 
take her consent by main force. She started up and 
stood facing him — panting — at bay. 

“ But it is impossible,” she gasped, clutching blindly at 
the line of least unpleasantness. “ I am your brother’s 
wife.” 

“ Oh, pshaw. Be my wife — h main gauche^ of course. 
We will forget all about your adventures with brother 
Karl. The past shall be past, and your future and the 
boy’s shall be my care.” 

She went red and white in quick succession. Then 
her feelings suddenly got the better of her. She struck 
him in the face with her hand and swept out of the 
room. 

He looked after her with a laugh, after the first sur- 
prise of the blow, and he still laughed as he heard the 
key turn in the lock of her bedroom door. 

‘‘ Heavens and earth ! How handsome she is when 
her spirit is up! You are worth many a blow, my lady. 
You are in my hands and there is only one way out.” 

It was but a sorry victory for the victor, however. 
She had indeed retreated in good order, but she felt 
sorely bruised and wounded. She wanted to fling her- 
self down and sob away the feeling of it till healing came 
with the cleansing of tears, but before Leona and the 
boy she would not give way. 

She waited till the closing of the passage door told her 
that the King had gon^, Then, bidding the girl wait 


THE king’s first VISIT. 


236 

with little Karl, she went into the other room and threw 
herself on the bed, and let nature have its way. 

In time she grew calm. The King’s proposal, objec- 
tionable and discreditable as it was, had no power to 
smirch her, though at first she had felt it so. She had 
given him his answer as expressively as she knew 
how to. 

What would he do next ? Tiy^ to wear her out with 
his importunities ? Try to break her spirit with brutal- 
ities ? Try to take — God ! was there no escape for her ? 
Oh, why did not Prince Alex and Alicia and Dr. Ziemer 
come to her help ? 

She sat up at last, and then began to pace the room 
in the dark to still the torment of her mind. Her hand, 
outstretched to save her from collision with the furni- 
ture, trailed along the wall, and in its passage touched 
the handle of the closet door. With vague ideas mixed 
up of the possibility of escape, and of Alicia and her 
stories of the tricksy cupboards of the Castle, she opened 
the door and went inside. She felt carefully for the 
third peg and pulled at it, but it remained immovable. 
She pulled diffidently and unhopefully at all the pegs, one 
after another, and her heart gave a leap as the last peg 
of all came out in her hand. In a fever of expectancy 
she inserted her finger in the hole and pushed, and in 
front of her, as she stood facing the end of the cupboard, 
she heard a slight rolling sound. She went, cautiously, 
forward, fingering her way inch by inch, found no ob- 
struction, and passed on into the darkness. She stretched 
out her hands to feel the sides of the passage. It seemed 
wider than the one she and Alicia had used. She went 
forward, step by step, and came suddenly against an ob- 
struction. She felt round carefully, and in a moment 
discovered that she was in a closet similar to the one she 
had just left in the other room. She groped for the 
handle, turned it cautiously, and entered the wide dark 
space of the adjoining room. 

She waited, scarce daring to breathe, but all was still 
as the grave, and so, gaining courage, she moved for- 
ward again, step by step. She thought of returning for 
a light, and then she thought it might betray her, and 


THE king’s first VISIT. 


237 

SO iiioved on again in the dark. Suddenly she struck 
against something in the middle of the room, and grop- 
ing with blind fingers she could not make out what it 
was. It felt like a long low table of polished wood. 
Her fingers groped questioningly along it, and with a 
shudder of horror she suddenly knew it for a coffin-— 
the coffin undoubtedly which the soldiers had brought in 
three days before. 

Whose coffin ? Hers and the boy’s ? The sudden 
shock of the discovery, and the hideous thoughts it gave 
rise to were too much for her. With a sigh she sank 
down beside it and lost consciousness. 

When she came to, she found herself half sitting and 
half kneeling by the coffin, with one arm thrown over 
the top of it, and the daylight streaming in through the 
windows. 

She shivered again and staggered up to go back to her 
room. Then she saw that the lid of the coffin was loose 
and that it bore a silver plate. She crept back to it, 
shrinking with fear, and read on the plate, 

“ Karl Von Rothstein, died in Brazil, July 25, 1887. 
Aged 38.” 

Ah, now she understood. This was her father’s body 
which they had buried in Roystadt believing it to be her 
husband’s, and the King and Grumiaux had had it 
brought here to solve the doubts which her words had 
raised in their minds. The lid was loose but she dared 
not look inside. She wafted an eloquent little, kiss to 
what lay there, and stole back through the closet and 
the sliding panel to her own rooms. 

All day long she waited, heavy-eyed and fearful, for 
the King’s return blow. She was so utterly powerless. 
He could strike back at her in so many ways, and that 
he would strike she felt sure. It was only a question of 
how and when. 

The boy of course would be taken from her, and she 
herself would be immured again in the gloomy room 
with the shuttered windows. What other forms of coer- 
cion the King might use she could only fearfully im- 
agine. 

She ranged the rooms and racked her brain fruitlessly 


HE KIxVG’S first VISIT. 


238 

for means of escape. With a wild idea of getting down 
that way she looked eagerly over the battlements of the 
terrace, but the terrace hung to the side of the rock like 
a swallow’s nest, and there was a sheer drop of three 
hundred feet before any footing could be reached. She 
tried every peg in every cupboard, but none responded 
to her touch save that one in Leona’s bedroom. There 
was no escape, and nothing to be done but wait, the 
hardest and most wearing task of all. The dreadful sus- 
pense kept her on the rack. The fear of its ending, and 
the way of it, tortured her till her brain grew sick and 
dizzy. 

But the King played cat and mouse with her. The 
day passed without any untoward incident. She felt 
certain he would come again that night, and renew his 
infamous proposals. The night passed quietly, however, 
and all the next day, but the passage of time brought no 
hope or comfort. King Rolf was not a man to sit down 
quietly under a repulse of this kind. Rather would he 
be spurred thereby to fresh endeavours, and the deter- 
mination to arrive at his end by any means whatsoever, 
no matter how brutal, or who suffered, so long as he got 
there. 

Each night, so doubtful was she of any security or 
privacy in this delusive Castle, with its walls of strength, 
which opened at touch of the knowing hand and dis- 
closed all their weaknesses of sliding panels, and secret 
ways, that after sounding every foot of the sides of her 
room, so far as she could reach them, she made Leona 
bring the mattress off her bed and sleep in the room 
with her and the boy, and for greater safety she dragged 
her own bed across the door, and placed the dressing- 
table against the door of the cupboard, which seemed 
solid and safe enough, but might after all be just as 
treacherous as some of the other cupboards she knew of. 


THE king's last VISIT. 


239 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE king’s last VISIT. 

On the evening of the second day she sent Karl and 
Leona away to bed early, for their irresponsible chatter 
and attempts at amusing her only added to her load, and 
she herself sat alone, in fear and darkness, sick at heart 
with the long strain, unable to do anything but brood 
over her troubles while still she was weary of the dull 
round of her thoughts, when suddenly the outer door 
opened and the King came in. 

At first, so low was the lamp, he did not see her and a 
muttered oath reached her. Then his eyes ranging 
round fell upon her, almost lost in a low cushioned chair. 

“ Ah, there you are, my lady spitfire,” he said in a big, 
jovial voice. “ Well, does our suggestion begin to meet 
with your ladyship’s approval? My cheek has tingled 
since last we met, and bidden me to another audience. 
Failing a kiss, a lady’s hand upon one’s cheek is the next 
best thing. Come, cousin Alix, how is it to be?” 

“ For God’s sake, leave me,” she said hoarsely, “ or 
worse may come of it.” 

“ For my own sake I am inclined to take all risks,” he 
said, and came across the room towards her. 

She started up and backed towards the open window 
which led out on to the terrace. 

“ If you lay hand on me I will fling myself over on to 
the rocks,” she panted. 

“ Oh, the pity,” he said jauntily. “ Think of that 
charming face and figure smashed into unrecognisable 
pulp on the rocks below. It would be sheer sacrilege.” 

“ But preferable to the other,” she said steadily. 

“ Well, well, I must leave you to think it over a while 
longer. I offer you everything a woman’s heart hun- 
gers for, and you offer me a bundle of dislocated bones 
In return. Perhaps longer consideration maj^ bring 


240 


THE king’s last VISIT. 


wiser decision. I will see you again shortly. Till we 
meet again.” He bowed and left the room. 

She crept back to her chair when she heard the outer 
door close, and remained long sunk in painful thoughts, 
striving to justify to herself a dreadful last extremity, and 
recoiling from it with all a woman’s horror of violence. 

Next morning the ominous Tautz entered abruptly 
and required Karl and Leona of her. There was no 
help for it ; they had to go, and with tears she could not 
restrain, embraces repeated till the Lieutenant’s patience 
was exhausted, so fearful was she that they might be 
the last, she saw the door close upon them, and sat 
down to await whatever fate might have in store for her. 

When, later in the day, she desired to get the fresh air 
of the terrace, she found the door had been screwed 
down tight, and when she Vv^ent to the windows she 
found they had all been treated in the same way. But 
these things did not trouble her. If she was driven to 
that last extremity there were other ways. 

The day passed slowly and heavily. The blue and 
white maid brought in her meals, and set them out 
daintily on the table, and seemed disappointed at her 
want of appetite. She could neither eat nor read, and 
the view outside only mocked her with its beauty and 
its .sense of freedom. The trouble of her mind rode her 
heavily and drove her to and fro and would not let her 
rest. 

That night she exhausted her ingenuity in safeguard- 
ing herself in her room, but the night passed quietly, 
and without incident. She never closed her eyes and 
the morning shewed her great dark circles round them 
and she felt worn out, both in body and in mind. 

The day passed like the last, in restless torment, and 
as evening drew on she found herself alternately shud- 
dering at thought of another visit from the King, and 
then anxiously awaiting it, for she felt unable to con- 
tinue the struggle much longer, and was determined to 
bring matters to a point while still she had strength left 
to fight. 

He carne at last. He walked heavily into the room 


THE king’s last VISIT. 


241 

and closed the door behind him. She was sitting in the 
same low chair and he looked there for her at once. 

“ I trust you will pardon my impatience and my pre- 
cautions. I could not contemplate with equanimity the 
thought of that fair face and those delicate limbs tum- 
bling about on the rocks below,” he began. “ Well, and 
has further thought brought my lady any nearer to com- 
mon sense ?” 

She sat motionless. Her heart became like water for 
a moment as he entered, then it plunged and kicked and 
became too large for her body, and she felt like suffocat- 
ing. Her lips closed tightly, her delicate nostrils dilated 
as she breathed deep and full, and her dark eyes gleamed 
like jewels in the low light of the lamp. 

The King came round the table towards her. She 
rose lightly and stood behind her chair. 

“ Come, Madame,” he said brusquely, “ let us under- 
stand one another. Are you going to accept my pro- 
posals or not ?” 

“ Not if you keep me prisoner for twenty years.” 

“ Then, by God, you shall whether you will or no,” he 
cried purple with passion, his brown eyes blazing as he 
strode heavily towards her. 

Her right hand rose suddenly from her side, and he 
found himself looking into the barrel of a tiny revolver. 
If he had waited one minute more, her nerves, strung 
to a breaking- point, would all have gone to pieces, as 
they did a minute later. But his fate and his pas- 
sion drove him on to the appointed end. He gave a 
contemptuous laugh, like the snarl of a wolf, and came 
blundering at her. She retreated behind the table. It 
would have been ridiculous had it not been so deadly- 
life and death — and more than either. 

“ Crack!” And the big man stumbled, lurched for a 
moment with blind spread arms, and crashed down 
among chairs and stools and lay in an uncouth heap, 
and never stirred. 

She covered her face with her hands, and fell on her 
knees, and buried her head in the cushions of a lounge, 
and sobbed till she was spent. 

She felt no remorse. She had done a terrible deed, 


THE king's last VISIT, 


242 

she said to herself, but there was nothing else for it. 
Surely the extremity of her need justified the extremity 
of her deed. 

She grew somewhat calmer at last and tried to think 
connectedly what was next to be done. But for a long 
time her thoughts could get no further than the awful 
fact that the King lay dead on the other side of the table, 
dead by her act and deed. 

Then suddenly she thought of her father. He was 
there in the room just beyond. She would go to him. 

She rose and passed swiftly from the room, without 
a look at what lay behind her. She passed into Leona’s 
bedroom, and through the sliding panel of the closet into 
the room where the coffin lay with her father’s body in- 
side it. 

“ Father!” she whispered and sank down by the side 
of the coffin. 

It felt friendly to her touch and she lay her burning 
forehead on its cold smooth top. Then overwrought 
nature gave way, and with one arm over the coffin lid 
she sank into a stupor which took no note of time. 

It was morning when she awoke, and for a moment 
she thought it was that other morning, and that all the 
dreadful happening of the night before was but a dream, 
but by degrees it all came back to her, and then she 
heard light footsteps fly past the door of the room she 
was in, and down the passage. Then more footsteps, 
heavy and thronging, came past, and then after a time 
the low steps and muttered ejaculations of men carry- 
ing an un wieldly burden. 

She heard it all, and though her eyes were closed and 
her head lay against the side of the coffin, she could see 
it all — the frightened maid — the astonished soldiers — the 
limp heaviness of the body as it was borne along the 
passage. 

But she never moved, and if they never found her she 
would lie there for ever, she said to herself, and rest. 
She was very tired, very, very tired, she would sleep 
again. Perhaps it would be better if they never found 
her. Then she could sleep on without fear of disturb- 
ance, and all she wanted was to sleep. She felt neither 


THE king’s last VISIT. 


243 

hunger nor thirst, only that craving for rest and oblivion 
which nothing but sleep can gix^e. 

It was dark again when next she woke. She was stiff 
and cramped and cold and hungry, but too listless to 
move even a finger. She dozed off and on through the 
night, and when the dawn looked stealthily in, she lay 
and watched it grow and grow, and wondered feebly 
how long it would be before death came to put her 
quietly to sleep forever. 

It was about noon when she heard steps pass the door 
again, and then suddenly the door of the closet opened 
and the Princess Alicia looked into the room where she 
lay, and gave an exclamation of joy at sight of her, 
which turned into one of dismay as she recognized the 
object against which her cousin lay. But Prince Alex- 
ander and Saxelstein were at her heels, and it was the 
strong arms of the former that raised the limp figure, and 
bore it rapidly from the room, and along the passages, 
and laid it on the Princess’s own bed before the eyes of 
the astonished ’Toinette. 

“ Quick, ’Toinette, get soup and wine. Get her into 
bed, Alicia, and chafe her limbs. She is dying of cold 
and hunger.” 

No mother could have been more solicitous for the 
welfare of her child than was Princess Alicia for Alix 
during her recovery. Under the gentle ministrations of 
the Princess and ’Toinette she regained her strength 
rapidly. But her heart was sick, and her mind was sad, 
with the strain and final shock of the late happenings, 
and the thought that the King’s death lay at her door 
bore heavily upon her. Yet never a reproachful or even 
conscious look, never the slightest sign or hint did Alicia 
give that she was aware of the circumstances of her 
brother’s death, and of Alix’s part in it. Could loving 
tact and delicate sympathy go further? 

Alix accepted all her kindnesses with the gratitude of 
a sorely-tried soul, and marvelled greatly. But the 
mother’s heart was hungering for a sight of her boy and 
on the second day as they did not bring him to her she 
asked the Princess, 

“ Where is my boy? May I have him with me?” 


THE KiNG*S LAST VISIT. 


m 

Alicia had been expecting and fearing the question. 

“ We do not quite know, my dear, where he is. We 
knew he was in the Castle and both Alex and Saxelstein 
spoke with him, not knowing whose child he was, but I 
was not allowed to see him. For the last two days we 
are all of us practically prisoners in this wing of the Castle. 
We heard that Rolf was ill, and ’Toinette brought word 
of your disappearance, and indeed we saw them search- 
ing the rocks down below. Then suddenly the idea 
struck me that, in endeavouring to escape, you might 
have tried some of the closets, and got through into some 
of the other rooms, and I made Alex and Saxelstein 
come along with me at once to see, and so we found 
you.” 

“ You say the King is ill. Is he not dead ?” 

“ Dead ! Oh, surely not. What makes you think so?” 

“ I thought I had killed him.” 

“ You, Alix? Oh, my dear, don’t think it.” 

And Alix knew by her look of pitying sympathy that 
the Princess thought her brain was rambling. 

“ No, I am not going crazy,” she said. “ Don’t look 
at me that way. He had been urging me night after 
night to consent to an informal marriage with him. 
That night he lost his temper and came at me in a pas- 
sion. I could not tell what he might not do, and I shot 
him. I heard them find him and carry him away next 
morning.” 

The Princess sat with clasped hands and incredulous 
eyes during this recital. 

“ My dear, I think you are dreaming.” 

“ Would that I were. Ah, it is true. I shall never 
get rid of the remembrance that he died by my hand, 
but it was in self-defense, and I think it was justified.” 

“ I am quite sure it was, but I cannot believe it ever 
happened.” 

“ Oh, it did, Alicia, it did.” 

“ Grumiaux is in charge of everything. Von Ahlsen 
and Tautz are hand and glove with him, and Rolf has 
not been seen for two days,” said the Princess musingly. 
“ Do you mind my bringing in Cousin Alex and Count 
Saxelstein to consult with us? They are savage at their 


THE king’s last VISIT. 


245 

present treatment, and if — if — if — my dear, you are not 
dreaming, the sooner they know how matters stand the 
better.” 

“ Fetch them quickly,” said Alix. “ I fear for my boy 
if he is in those men’s hands.” 

Within five minutes Prince Alex and Saxelstein were 
in possession of the facts as given by Alix, and they re- 
ceived them with amazement equal to that of the Prin- 
cess, but after a thoughtful pause Prince Alex said at 
last, 

“ Our present situation tends to bear out Cousin Alix’s 
very strange story. The King has not been seen for 
two days, and to all intents and purposes we are prison- 
ers here in the hands of Grumiaux and his people. That 
is just what we might expect from him under such cir- 
cumstances. He has seized the boy as hostage, no doubt, 
but what can be his object? If Cousin Alix’s marriage 
with Karl is proved, as I devoutly hope it may be, young 
Karl is King. If he is not, then I am. What can Gru- 
maux be up to?” 

“ Himmel!” said Saxelstein. “ Come with me and we 
will force our way to Grumiaux and demand audience 
of the King. That will settle it.” 

“No good, my dear fellow. I tried to get through this 
morning. Every door of this wing has twenty of Von 
Ahlsen’s Waldovians guarding it, and all they can say is 
that their instructions from the King are to let no one 
pass either in or out.” 

“ But it is past bearing,” said Saxelstein, his fingers 
itching for the hilt of his absent sword. 

“ It is, but I don’t see what we can do but wait. You 
and I can’t tackle the whole of Grumiaux's people.” 

“ What of those others down there, Ziemer and his 
men?” 

“ They know nothing of what has been going on here 
most likely, and if they did they could not storm the 
Castle. Grumiaux is absolute master of the situation, 
so far as I can see. But if Rolf is really dead Grumiaux 
must show his hand in a very short time, and when we 
know what his intentions are then we can act.” 


246 THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING f 

“ What can the wretch be np to ?” said Alicia anx- 
iously. 

“ Something that will tend to his own inerease you 
may be sure,” replied Prince Alex. “ He is a clever 
man in his way, but it is not a nice way, and the main- 
spring of it all is the advancement of Herr Grumiaux.” 

“ I am troubled at thought of my boy in those men’s 
hands,” said Alix, and Prince Alex ground his teeth, and 
fervently wished his strong brown hands were within 
gripping distance of Grumiaux’s throat. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE THE KING! 

But they were not to be left long in the dark as to 
the Minister’s intentions. 

The next morning a blue and white page rapped 
smartly at the outer door of the Princess’s apartments 
and demanded audience of her Highness. 

“ Highness,” he said as Alicia came into the room, 
“ the King desires your presence in the great hall at 
midday.” 

“ The King?"” said the Princess. 

“ The King,” repeated the boy with the conscious 
look of one who knows more than the person he is 
speaking to. “ I go to summon the Prince Alexander 
and Count Saxelstein also,” and he disappeared. 

“ The King desires my attendance in the great hall 
at midday,” said the Princess returning to Alix’s room. 

“ The King?” cried Alix, springing up. “ The King? 
Oh, what does it mean? Is he — can he — Oh, I must go 
too. I must know. I am quite strong now. You will 
let me go with you, Alicia?” 

“ My dear, I am afraid it would be too much for you.” 

“No, no, I cannot wait. I must go. I can stand 
anything better than this anxiety.” 


THE KING IS IDEAD ! LONG IJVE THE KING ! 247 

Presently Prince Alex and Saxelstein tapped at the 
door, and were admitted to the sitting-room where the 
Princess and Alix were awaiting' them. They both 
looked mightily puzzled, and Prince Alex, looking at 
Alix, said, 

“ What is the meaning of this, do you suppose ! If Rolf 
is dead, whom are we going to meet in the great hall?” 

“ I cannot tell, but I know the King is dead. For a 
moment when I heard this message I hoped, but — I 
know he is dead and whom we are going to meet I can- 
not tell.” 

“ Cousin Alix insists on going, though she has not 
been invited,” said Alicia, whose spirits were rising to 
the occasion. 

“ They don’t know she is here,” said Prince Alex. 
“ She has as much right to go as any of us, and besides 
I think the closer we all keep to one another the better 
after our late experiences. Saxelstein, you are responsi- 
ble for the safety of the Princess. I will take charge of 
Cousin Alix.” 

At twelve o’clock the blue and white page returned. 
He seemed extremely surprised at sight of Alix, but 
conducted them in silence to the entrance door of their 
wing of the Castle. An armed guard received them 
there, and in the midst of it they proceeded to the great 
hall. 

They found it full of armed men, the Waldo vians, 
Moldavians, and other aliens with whom King Rolf had 
found it necessary to surround himself. These were 
ranged round the walls six deep with their officers 
in front. At the far end of the hall, where the door 
from the King’s apartments opened into it, was a dais, 
and on it the great chair with the blue and white canopy 
above, which was only used on occasions of high estate. 

The Princess and her friends were conducted to 
chairs in front of the soldiers at the left hand side of the 
dais. As only three chairs had been provided Prince 
Alexander insisted on standing behind the one occupied 
by Alix, and Saxelstein took up his position behind the 
Princess. And so they waited in anxious wonderment 
for what might be coming. 


248 THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 

The door behind the dais opened and a number of 
officers came out — Von Ahlsen, Tautz, Reitz, com- 
mander of the Moldavians, and grouped themselves be- 
hind the chair of state. Then came Grumiaux, hobbling 
with stick and crutch, wearing a court costume with 
the broad blue and white ribbon of the order of St. 
John, and an air of masterful resolution on his great 
coarse face. With him came a dozen of his own partic- 
ular creatures of the council, all holders of more or less 
inportant offices in the state. The assembly on the dais 
began to assume quite an imposing appearance. 

At a sign from Grumiaux Von Ahlsen disappeared 
through the King’s door, and came back in a moment 
leading by the hand little Karl, dressed in a little blue 
kilt with a white blouse, which was almost hidden by the 
broad blue and white ribbon of the royal order. Von 
Ahlsen lifted him into the royal chair, and the boy’s eyes 
roved wide over the iserried lines of soldiers and he 
clapped his hands with delight. 

Then Alix sprang up from her seat and ran towards 
the dais, crying, “ Karl! Karl!” 

“ Miitterchen!” shouted Karl with a squeal of delight 
and scrambled down backwards from the high chair, 
with a great display of little white pants, and ran down 
to the front of the dais and sprang into her outstretched 
arms. 

Herr Grumiaux’s eyes filled with angry amazement at 
sight of Alix. Von Ahlsen, whose back had been turned 
at the moment, started down the dais after Karl, but was 
too late to stop him. The officials watched the scene 
with interest, the soldiers round the room looked on 
impassively, not understanding the situation. Von Ahl- 
sen conferred with Grumiaux for a moment, and then 
came down from the dais by the side steps, and re- 
quested Alix to accompany him with the King. 

“ The King ?” she said. 

Von Ahlsen bowed low. 

“ Surely none should know better than your Highness 
that your son is rightful King of Vascovia. We are 
here to proclaim him as such. I beg of you to follow 
me.” 


THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 249 

She followed him and set the boy once more in the 
royal chair, and stood holding his hand. 

But in a moment another chair was placed alongside, 
and she sat down by the side of her boy, still holding 
him by the hand. 

Princess Alicia and Prince Alex and Saxelstein all 
stood gazing after her while these events were happen- 
ing, so that Alix and her boy were the only ones seated 
in the whole assemblage, save Grumiaux, who by reason 
of his crippled condition was unable to stand for more 
than a moment or two. 

And so for a moment they all stood in silence, and 
then Grumiaux’s harsh voice broke upon them. 

“ I have called you together to-day to inform you offi- 
cially of the death of King Rolf, which occurred two 
days ago." He looked keenly at Alix as he spoke. Her 
pulse was beating happy time to that of the little warm 
hand in hers, and her eyes were feasting on her boy’s 
bright face, but at Grumiaux’s words she started and 
turned anxiously towards him. Would his next sen- 
tence reveal her share in the matter of the King’s 
death ? 

“ King Rolf,’’ continued Grumiaux, “ died of an apo- 
plectic seizure, shortly after an interview with myself 
on matters of the gravest importance respecting the 
State. The King had many times been warned by his 
physician of his liability to such a seizure. He left me, 
after our discussion, to keep another appointment, and 
from that appointment he returned only to die. There 
has been nothing left for me to do but to carry out King 
Rolf’s last wishes, and this I am now doing. Before his 
death the King acknowledged the claims of the son of 
our late much- regretted Prince Karl, as rightful heir to 
the throne, and he even expressed the intention in case 
of his recovery of relinquishing the crown in his fa- 
vour. 

“ That, at all events, is a lie,’’ muttered Prince Alex 
to Saxelstein. “ Never in this world did Rolf give up 
anything that was worth keeping when once he had got 
his hands on it.’* . . 

“ This intention,’’ said Grumiaux, “ the King expressed 


250 THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 

in writing, and upon that I am now acting. If anyone 
present ” — his short-sighted eyes peered in the direction 
of the Princess’s party — “ if anyone present has any- 
thing to advance in opposition to King Rolf’s wishes 
and intentions let it now be said.” 

There was a silence. Then Prince Alex stepped out 
of the ranks and said quietly, but in a voice that was 
heard throughout the hall. 

“ Herr Grumiaux, no one will be more pleased than 
myself if the arrangements you have named can be 
carried out to their fullest extent, and in asking you, as 
I now do, to afford us the amplest proof of the valid- 
ity of the claims of Prince Karl’s little son you will, I 
hope, and the Princess Alix ” — with a bow in her di- 
rection, alike impressive and expressive, — “ will, I am 
sure, believe me when I say that my sole desire is to 
put the matter beyond all possibility of doubt and to 
make my little cousin’s seat broad and safe and sure. 
God knows I have no desire for the crown of Vascovia 
for myself, and anything in my power towards the ab- 
solute proof and final settlement of this very grave 
matter I am ready to do.” 

“ We are satisfied,” growled Grumiaux, “ of the truth 
of the Princess Alix’s statements. King Rolf was satis- 
fied. Nothing more is necessary.” 

“ I fear it is too grave an issue to be decided so 
lightly. For the sake of the country, for the sake of the 
boy himself, and for the sake of Princess Alix, the proof 
must be absolutely flawless and irrefragable. We have 
others to eonsider besides ourselves.” 

“ What proofs does your Highness desire ? Do you 
doubt the accuracy of the Princess’s own statements ?” 

“ Not for a single instant, but the succession of the 
crown does not pass by word of mouth simply. The 
proofs must be on record for posterity or trouble may 
come to the realm. To accept the throne with any pos- 
sible flaw in the foundations would be infinitely worse 
than not accepting it all.” 

“ Sufficient proofs will be forthcoming,” growled 
Grumiaux again, “ and meanwhile I hereby proclaim 


THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 25 I 

Karl, son of our late Prince Karl, son of King Johann, 
King of Vasco via, and let who will resist his claim.” 

He was in a surly humour. The opposition of Prince 
Alex he had expected, and was prepared for, but with 
the mother dead, the boy in his own hands, and himself 
in supreme power, he believed himself strong enough to 
override any and every opposition the Prince might 
raise. The unexpected reappearance of Alix boded ill 
for his schemes, for she was, he knew, too high-minded 
to lend herself to anything not absolutely straight and 
above board. 

The conference broke up, and Von Ahlsen approached 
the little King to conduct him to his apartments. At 
the same moment Princess Alicia with Prince Alex and 
Saxelstein monunted the side of the dais and also ap- 
proached them. 

Von Ahlsen evidently expected Alix to join the Prin- 
cess’s party. But she had no such intention, and she 
stood quietly holding her boy by the hand. 

“ Will your Majesty be pleased to accompany me ?” 
said Von Ahlsen, bowing low before the small boy. 

They moved in his direction, and Von Ahlsen waited 
for Alix to make her adieu x. He stood and looked at 
her. She stood and looked at him. 

“ Your pardon. Highness, my instructions are to con- 
duct the King to his apartments.” 

“ Lead on, sir,” said Alix. “ We are ready.” 

“ Pardon, Highness, but my instructions are to con- 
duct the King ” 

“ Nonsense,” she replied hotly. “ Where my boy 
goes I go. We have been too long separated. I shall 
not leave him.” 

Von Ahlsen looked perplexed. He would have taken 
fresh instructions from Grumiaux, but Grumiaux had 
hobbled away, and he had to decide the matter himself. 

Here little Karl caught sight of the Princess. 

“ Aunt Alicia,” he cried, “ why have you never come 
to see me again ? Mother is to come with me now, is 
she not ?” 

“ Of course your mother is to go with you, Karl,” said 
the Princess. “ I would like to cpme too, but I sup- 


252 THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 

pose — ” she looked at Von Ahlsen but he shook his head 
decidedly. 

“ My instructions are to take the King back to his 
own rooms, but I cannot take him by force from her 
Highness, so she must come too, I suppose.” 

Alix had turned to Prince Alex, who was regarding 
her steadfastly and with somewhat of anxiety in his 
look. 

At the first moment she had felt a not unnatural in- 
clination to resent his apparent opposition to Grumiaux’s 
claims on behalf of her boy, but calm common sense 
told her he was right. A moment’s thought shewed her 
that Grumiaux’s actions were dictated solely by self- 
interest, that her boy was but a tool in his hands, a 
pawn — a King, rather — in his game, and that his par- 
tisanship was more likely to embroil her and the boy 
■with the people, and to embitter them against him, than 
to attract them to his side. A throne to be secure 
must, she knew, be based upon the will of the people, 
and Grumiaux’s will was not the people’s will. 

“You do not misjudge me. Cousin Alix ?” said the 
Prince quietly. 

“ No,” she said. “ You are quite right. We want 
nothing but what is right. I wish we had never come 
near Vascovia.” 

“ So do not I,” he said smiling and looking into her 
eyes, “ and you, I hope, will not always feel so. Keep 
your heart up. Things will work out all right in the 
end.” 

Then they separated, and Alix and little Karl followed 
Von Ahlsen through the door behind the dais to the 
King’s apartments in the south front of the Castle. 
Here they found Leona anxiously awaiting the return of 
her young master, and her joy at the unexpected sight of 
her mistress was unbounded. 

“ Oh, will you not stop with us always now, Madame ?” 
she asked. “ Little Karl has never ceased asking for 
you since those last three days.” 

“ Do stop with us, Miitterchen,” said Karl. “ I do 
want you all the time.” 

“We will try and keep together now,” she said, bnt 


A QUESTION OF HOURS. 


253 


her heart misgave her somewhat at thought of the risks 
and dangers of the dizzy height to which they had so 
suddenly been thrust, and from the bottom of it she 
wished they were safe in England earning a meagre liv- 
ing in peaceful obscurity. 


CHAPTER XXXIIL 

A QUESTION OF HOURS. 

From their windows that afternoon they watched the 
townspeople gathering in the great Platz near the sta- 
tion, and inside the walls of the barracks, close under 
the castle rock, were ominous bodies of troops awaiting 
eventualities. 

Grumiaux, working out his plans, had affixed outside 
the great gate of the barracks a proclamation announc- 
ing the death of King Rolf and the accession of the 
young King Karl. The news had spread through the 
town" like wild fire and the people were all a-buzz with 
excitement. 

Dr. Ziemer, when the news reached him, smiled grimly 
at the march his wily rival had stolen upon him, and sat 
long pondering the situation. 

He recognized all the cleverness of Grumiaux’s action, 
and the spring of it, and he knew that the people would 
be so satisfied to be rid of their tyrant that they might 
well be inclined to accept the new state of things with- 
out looking too closely into the actual facts. And than 
that nothing could be worse for young Karl and his 
mother. For, satisfied as he himself was, that Prince 
Karl had actually married his cousin Alix, and that little 
Karl was their son, the fact remained that Princess 
Sophie of Schwarzberg-Kohlen was undoubtedly still 
dive at or about the time of that second inarriage, Tfie 


254 A QUESTION OF HOURS. 

whole matter hung by a hair almost — the validity of that 
marriage, and little Karl’s legitimacy, and until he could 
get speech of Alix, and ask her one pointed question, it 
was absolutely impossible to solve the riddle and decide 
the matter beyond possibility of doubt. 

Even if the answer was what he fervently hoped, for 
her sake, it might be, a long and trying journey would 
probably be necessary in order to officially and legally 
set all doubts at rest for ever, for, he said to himself 
almost in Prince Alex’s own words, “ the succession must 
be based on facts and not on simple word of mouth, 
or trouble is bound to crop up sooner or later.” 

He had only returned, two days before, from the 
country, where he had with difficulty been holding down 
the people who would no longer tolerate the rule of 
King Rolf, and felt themselves strong enough to stand 
up for their own rights. He had had no intercourse with 
his friends in the Castle since his return, and now he 
knew why. He could fairly well gauge the state of mat- 
ters up on the rock, with Grumiaux in absolute power 
and striving by any and every means to consolidate him- 
self. He must get into communication with Alix as soon 
as possible. • The difficulty was how to do it. 

He was sitting in his quiet study one night still puz- 
zling over ways and means when a tap came at the door, 
and in answer to his word Ibach came quietly in. 

“ Herr Doctor, the Princess!” 

“ Ah, Ibach, you are an angel,” and he rose quickly. 

“ Not yet, thank God, Herr Doctor. Time enough,” 
and the big man closed the door discreetly behind the 
Doctor as he passed into the other room. 

My dear child,” said Dr. Ziemer, greeting Alicia 
with both hands. “ What risks have you run to get 
here, and how do you manage it ? I have heard of your 
other visits.” 

“ Ah, that is my secret. Doctor, but I shall have to 
share it with you. We want you badly up there, to tell 
us who’s who and what’s what, and to save us all from 
the magnanimous Grumiaux. When will you come ?” 

“ As soon as you will show me the way. Not being 
an angel myself,” Ije bowed gallantly, “ I cannot fly.” 


A QUESTION OF HOURS. 


255 


To-night ?” 

“ At once, the sooner the better. What does Prince 
Alex say to all this ?” 

“ Prince Alex is in love with Cousin Alix, Doctor, and 
nothing would delight him better than to lie on the 
ground and let her walk over him.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said the old man beaming, “ that is good. 
Nothing could be better, and she ?” 

“We shall see. She has been sorely tried. Do you 
know she asserts that she shot Rolf ?” 

“ Shot him ? Good Heavens! Why?” 

“ She shall tell you all about it. I cannot think it, and 
Grumiaux says it was a fit.” 

“ One moment, your Highness. Now I am ready,” as 
he reappeared from the other room with his cloak and a 
felt hat. “ Which way do we go ?” 

“ By the private stair and coach-house. Then you 
must trust yourself to me.” 

“ It is a reversal of our positions hitherto, but equally 
acceptable,” and they passed down the private stair. 

By devious ways, the quietest she knew of, the Prin- 
cess led him round the base of the rock, past the ghostly 
pillar, to the stone door behind the ivy curtain. 

“ Well, well,” whispered the old man, “ live and learn. 
I thought I knew all there was to know about Roystadt, 
but this is new to me.” 

“ This is a royal secret,” said Alicia. 

“ And I am promoted,” said the Doctor. “ But it is 
safe with me, my dear.” 

“ Or you would not be here,” she said. “ I am break- 
ing the traditions of the house for you, Herr Doctor, but 
necessity compels.” 

She found a taper, and lit it, and by its wavering 
flicker they slowly mounted the steps to the great hall of 
the tower, then up again to the narrow passage in the 
wall, and so came at last unobserved to the Princess’s 
own rooms. 

They both dropped panting into chairs, and as soon 
as she had sufficiently recovered, the Princess summoned 
’Toinette and sent her off to find Prince Alex and Sax- 
olstein^ with a,n urgent request for their company. 


A QUESTION OF HOURS. 


256 

The two men came in almost immediately, and greeted 
Doctor Ziemer with exceeding warmth and equal sur- 
prise. 

“ How on earth did you get here, Herr Doctor ? We 
have been most anxiously wanting you, but we are pris- 
oners for the time being, and we had no news of your 
return.” 

“ An angel came down and carried me up,” said the 
Doctor, smiling and turning to Alicia. “ Cannot your 
Highness complete the miracle by bringing the Princess 
Alix here also ?” 

“ I am not sure if that will be possible,” said the Prin- 
cess. “ I can do it if — I will try any way.” She threw 
on her cloak again and disappeared. 

“ Tell me, Dr. Ziemer,” said Prince Alex, “ have you 
got to the actual facts concerning Cousin Alix’s mar- 
riage ? In view of this action of Grumiaux’s it is a mat- 
ter of the gravest importance, and it is causing me the 
greatest anxiety — on her account and the boy’s.” 

“ To all intents and purposes I can settle the question 
as soon as I see the Princess Alix herself,” said Doctor 
Ziemer. “ One simple question and answer will end it 
as far as we are concerned. For the purposes of the 
state it may be necessary to have the facts confirmed. 
That will take longer.” 

“ x\h, and what is this pregnant question ?’ 

“ Here they come,” said the Doctor, as Alix came in, 
closely followed by the Princess. “ Now how did your 
Highness manage that, I wonder ?” he said, looking in- 
quisitively at the latter. 

“ If there is one place I know my way about it is this 
Castle of Roystadt,” said Alicia. “ Be content, Herr 
Doctor, leave me some of my secrets. What is a woman 
without a secret ?” 

Alix clasped Dr. Ziemer’s hand in a warm and eager 
clasp. 

“Oh, Doctor, can you solve my riddles and end my 
anxieties ?” 

“ I think I can,” he said gravely, and the others gath- 
ered round all a-tiptoe with curiosity. 

He turned to Prince Ale^cander^ 


A que?;tion of hours. 257 

** Whose body was it we buried here three years ago 
as Prince Karl’s ?” 

“ I do not know.” 

“ Was it Prince Karl’s ?” 

“ It was not.” 

“ Ah! And how does your Highness know that ?” 

“ Rolf had the body brought up to the Castle — ” the 
Doctor nodded — for what purpose I know not, but I 
had an opportunity of examining it, the morning we 
found you in that room,” he said addressing Alix, “ and 
I knew in a moment that it was not the body of my cousin 
Karl.” 

“ How ?” said Dr. Ziemer. 

‘‘ Karl and I stood up side by side in the vineyard by 
the stream at Worth, and a French bullet took off the 
little finger of his right hand before my eyes. This body 
has a little finger.” 

“ Quite so,” said Dr. Ziemer with a nod of approval. 

“ Now,” he said, turning to Alix, “ may I ask your 
Highness one question. You were married to Prince 
Karl at the mission station of Sao Gregorio on the Upper 
Amazon on the 14th September, 1887 ?” 

” Yes.” 

“ Can you tell me exactly at what hour of the day the 
marriage took place ?” 

“ Certainly. It was early morning because of the heat. 
About six o’clock.” 

“ There is no possible doubt about the time ?” 

“Not the slightest.” 

“ And if necessary for reasons of the State, confirma- 
tion of the hour could be obtained, doubtless ?” 

“ I should suppose so. Certainly if the old priest is 
alive. If not, about twenty of his people were present 
and they would doubtless remember. Marriages were 
not too common there, and it was the first white mar- 
riage they had ever had.” 

“ We will take it, then, your Highness, that you were 
married on September 14th at six o’clock in the morn- 
ing, and Prince Karl’s wife the Princess Sophie died here 
the very same day two hours later at eight o’clock in 


A QUESTION OE HOURS. 


25^ 

the morning. I have it fixed at last by the physicians 
who attended her.” 

“ Oh, Doctor, cried Princess Alicia, clasping her hands, 
while Alix sank down into a chair and covered her face. 

“ Good God !” said Prince Alexander. 

Saxelstein said nothing but chewed his moustache sav- 
agely. 

“ But,” said Dr. Ziemer, quietly and impressively, 
“ there is a difference of seven hours in the time between 
Roystadt and Sao Gregorio. Princess Sophie died here 
at eight o’clock, which in Brazil was equivalent to one 
o’clock in the morning and Prince Karl married you at 
six o’clock of the same morning, five hours later, when, 
though he did not know it, he was absolutely free to do 
it, and you are therefore legally his wife. He committed, 
as he says in his letter, so far as he knew a grievous 
wrong against you. Possibly the very great love he 
bore you may in some sort atone for it in your eyes. 
But as strict matter of fact, and in law, there was no 
crime whatever committed except against God and him- 
self.” 

“ Thank God,” said Prince Alex softly, and Alix un- 
covered her face and raised her grateful eyes to the Doc- 
tor. Alicia threw her arms round her and kissed her, 
and Saxelstein looked more than half inclined to follow 
suit. 

“ Now,” said Dr. Ziemer, “ as this matter will have to 
be proved to the bottom — you will understand why — ” 
he said looking at Alix. 

She nodded. “ I wish it so.” 

“ That is well,” said Dr. Ziemer. “ There must be no 
flaw in the foundation of your house, and we have others 
to think of besides ourselves. I have here the letter you 
handed to me from your husband that first night of your 
arrival, and also your marriage certificate. Your High- 
ness is, I believe, quite unacquainted with the contents 
of that letter.” 

“ Quite,” said Alix. 

“ I am going to read it,” he said slowly. “ It will cause 
you all pain, I fear, but the sting is past. If you would 
prefer not hearing it — ” he said looking at Alix. 


A QUESTION OE HOURS. 


259 

“ I will hear it,” she said quietly. “ As you say, the 
sting is past.” 

‘‘ Then I will read it,” said the Doctor, “ as it makes 
plain many matters that have been troubling us.” 

He drew forth the papers from his pocket and opened 
them and read. 


“ Valpraiso, Dece 7 ?iber t, 1888. 

“ZiEMER, MY DEAR OLD FRIEND, 

“ This will seem to you like a voice from the dead, but 
though I suppose you have, to the best of your knowl- 
edge, buried me with royal honours in Roystadt Cathe- 
dral, I am here in the flesh, and I write to explain 
matters to you, though you will never see this letter ex- 
cept in certain eventualities, which I pray God may 
never happen. 

“ While travelling on the Upper Amazon (my last 
letter to you was from Punta Arenas in Patagonia) I 
came across another member of the Rothstein family, 
Karl, son of Leopold of Rothstein- Engelberg, travelling 
under the name of Charles Roustaine. He had with 
him his daughter Alix, the sweetest and most beautiful 
girl I ever met, very like Alicia in face, but — well, if 
ever you see her you will understand, and if you do not 
see her you will have no need of explanations.” 

(Princess Alicia made a whimsical moiie but no one 
saw it save Albert of Saxelstein.) 

“ They were cast on my care in a very peculiar , 
way. Nine months before I met them I had penetrated 
up the Paranon River to a veritable terra incognita 
there, inhabited by a tribe of savages whose boast it was 
that no stranger ever left their country alive. This was 
too tempting to resist. I got inside their borders and by 
one of the few lucky accidents of my life (Fortune owed 
me many but still neglected the settlement, though now 
the account is clear and I am paid in full and for all 
time) I was fortunate enough to save the life of their 
chief and so saved my own. The chief Ruca succeeded 
after much difficulty in getting me admitted to the tribe 
as the only means of saving me from certain unpleasant 


26 o a question of hours. 

ways those people have with strangers, in which impale- 
ment, crucifixion and beheading are prominent features. 
The private mark of a member of the tribe of the Pao- 
rongs is the amputation of the little finger of the left 
hand from the middle joint. Every Paorong, when a 
baby, is thus treated, and it is possible the ceremony is 
less painful then than at a later stage in life. Anyhow 
as the whole is greater than a part, and as I had to lose 
my little finger or my life, I let the little finger go, and 
I may say that I felt the manner of its going very con- 
siderably more than I did that of my other little finger 
which, as you know, was taken from me by a French bullet 
at Worth. I name all this at length because it is of im- 
portance. You will see later on. 

“ It was my good fortune to rescue Roustaine and his 
daughter from my bloodthirsty fellow tribesmen, when 
they fell into their hands, and with them I escaped down 
stream. And travelling for many days in company of 
sweet Alix Roustaine, I lost my heart to her so com- 
pletely that I have done what an honourable man would 
not have done. Listen, and judge me no more harshly 
than you must. The father died as the result of his 
encounter with the Paorongs. Alix was thrown upon 
my care completely. Roustaine recognized me before he 
died and commended her to me. In order to sever once 
and for all every link with Vascovia, I had the father’s 
body embalmed by friendly Indians, and by means of a 
German trader sent it home to Roystadt as my own with 
letters written in the name of Charles Roustaine. You 
have doubtless received it, buried it, and my wife Sophie 
considers herself a widow. God knows she is so and 
always has been from the very first, save in the actual 
fact that I still live. Why was I ever such a fool as to 
submit to that hideous marriage ? The first sin was 
there, and for all his goodness I cannot acquit m}^ father 
of his share in it. I was married to Alix Roustaine at 
the mission of Sao Gregorio by Father Pedro Veturio, 
and my wife has the certificate of that marriage. Poor 
child ! Now remember, if ever this letter reaches you, 
which again I pray God — though little right have I to 
ask anything of him — it never may, all you have to do is 


261 


A QUEgT^6^^ 6E HOURS. 

to satisfy yourself of the identity of the body you buried 
— rather I should say in order to prove its non-identity 
with my own — is to open the lid of the coffin and look at 
the hands. If the right hand is intact, as it is, the body 
cannot be mine, for you all were aware of my loss at 
Worth. 

That is the first thing, and that being so I solemnly 
commend to your care this dear companion of my life, 
the truest and best wife a man ever had, Alix von Roth- 
stein. She will only deliver this letter in case of abso- 
lute necessity from whatsoever cause. But if she does 
deliver it you are to provide for her to the utmost* of 
your power from any Accumulation of my funds which 
are in your stewardship and may God deal by you as 
you deal by her. 

“ A month ago, my dear Alix bore me a son, whom I 
have registered here at Valparaiso as Karl von Roth- 
stein, though I myself have now adopted, as a final snap- 
ping of the links of the past, the name my wife’s father 
went by, Charles Roustaine. I have bought a schooner 
and we are going to cruise for a year or more among the 
sunny islands of the Pacific. One cannot foresee what 
may happen, and I leave this with my bankers here, to 
be given to my wife along with my other papers in case 
of accident to me and her survival. 

“ And now, my dear old friend, once and for all, good- 
bye. If ever you receive this letter it will be after my 
death, and from my grave I once more commend to your 
care my wife and our boy. Good-bye. 

“ Karl von Rothstein.” 

When he had finished reading there was a silence 
among them for the minds of all of them were filled with 
many thoughts. Pale and pained were the faces of the 
women, and the faces of the men were tight-lipped and 
frowning. 

The silence was becoming painful when Dr. Ziemer 
broke it. 

“ That letter makes everything very plain, I think. 
Prince Alex, you are the person most deeply affected by 


262 A QUESTION OF HOURS. 

this new turn of events. Do you accept as facts the 
statements here given ?” 

“ Absolutely, Doctor, and I am entirely at my cousin’s 
service to obtain the proofs you require. Cousin Alix, 
will you charge me with this quest on your behalf.” 

For reply she stretched an impulsive hand towards 
him, and he bent gallantly and kissed it, and a tinge of 
colour passed over her pale face. 

“ That is well spoken,” said Dr. Ziemer, “ and worthy 

of a ” he stopped, lest eulogy of the living should 

seem like condemnation of the dead. 

“ And now,” he said briskly, “ I suggest that it will be 
better for all of you to be with me among my people, 
than to remain with Grumiaux and his people. What 
do you say?” 

“ Undoubtedly,” said Prince Alex. 

“ Why can’t we bring in men by the way you came. 
Doctor?” said Saxelstein hopefully. “ Sufficient men to 
make a clean sweep of Grumiaux and his vermin.” 

“ The way I came in is the Princess’s secret. If you 
can persuade her to make it public the thing is quite 
possible. Grumiaux will not quit his hold without a 
fight, and the quicker and sharper it comes the shorter 
it will be.” 

“ Fifty men taking them by surprise would do the job,” 
said Saxelstein, who was always ready for a fight. 

“ The first thing,” said Dr. Ziemer, “ is to get out 
safely. Will your Highness bring the King. He must 
be our first consideration.” 

For the first time Alix began to feel the full depth 
and breadth and height of her new position, for Gru- 
miaux’s action and display, dictated, as she knew they 
were, simply by self-interest, had conveyed to her mind 
no feeling of solidarity or continuity. But here were the 
persons in the state interested above all others in the 
proper and final settlement of this question of the suc- 
cession, accepting her boy as rightful heir without a 
word of opposition. Perhaps indeed she hardly realized 
it even yet in all its fullness, but this general recognition 
impressed her deeply. 


A DUEL IN THE DARK n. v^LEn-K/iiNCri.. -^^3 

“ I would suggest that you all get any special things 
you wish to take with you, and meet here again in fifteen 
minutes,” said Dr. Ziemer. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 

They separated. Dr. Ziemer sitting quietly in the 
Princess’s room, awaiting their reassembling, and within 
the time named, one by one they dropped in — Alix and 
Karl attended by Leona, open-eyed and open-mouthed 
at the strange way by which under the Princess’s guid- 
ance they had reached her room. For they had passed 
into dark closets, and through them into other rooms, 
and through these rooms into other closets’ and so at 
last had accomplished the intricate journey between the 
little King’s rooms and those of the Princess. 

Alicia tossed all her jewelery into a handbag, and gave 
it to ’Toinette, and announced herself ready. The two 
soldiers had their swords and revolvers and not much 
else. 

“ We shall be back again to-morrow,” said Saxelstein, 
“ and there is no reason why they should loot our rooms 
in the meantime.” 

Then, with faces full of anxiety, they followed the 
Princess Alicia in such silence as they could compass, 
through room after room of the unused apartments giv- 
ing on to the inner court, till they reached the closet 
which opened into the passage in the wall. Silently and 
cautiously they followed, Saxelstein coming last and 
closing all the doors as Alicia instructed him. And so 
at last to the hall of the East Tower, where they stood to 
regain breath after their rapid passage between the 
inner and outer skin of the Castle. 

They descended the winding stair and they had all 


2^4 A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 

entered the narrow final passage with the steep uneven 
steps, except Saxelstein. He stood for a second to se- 
cure the door as usual, when casting a final glance up 
the shaft of the tower, his own figure dimly silhouetted 
by the flickering taper carried by Alicia away down the 
winding stair, a sudden flash burst from one of the land- 
ing-places up above, a roar filled the hollow building, 
and a revolver bullet spatted on the wall at his side. In 
an instant he closed the door upon the retreating party 
and sat down in the dark with his back to it on the stone 
steps of the tower staircase and waited like a shadow. 

He heard an oath up above, and then, after a long, 
suspicious pause, cautious footsteps descending. As they 
neared the spot where he sat, silent and motionless in 
the dark, the footsteps became slower, each slow step 
becoming more and more charged with caution and sus- 
picion. 

The descending man was holding on to the iron bal- 
ustrade on the outer side of the staircase. At last he 
came level with the Count, and Saxelstein held his 
breath. Another step and he would be past. But Sax- 
elstein had been aching for a fight this long time back, 
and the temptation was too strong. He thrust out a leg 
and the other tripped with an oath and went blundering 
down three steps at once, and but for the balustrade 
would have gone to the bottom. Before he could re- 
cover himself Saxelstein stood up saying quietly, 

“ Tautz, my friend, drop your revolver down the stairs 
— instantly, or I fire.” 

Tautz’s revolver went rattling down the steps. 

“ Now,” said Saxelstein gaily , “ draw and defend your- 
self. Stay, we will go down to the next landing. Then 
we shall be on a level. What do you mean by wander- 
ing about here in the dark and shooting at people in 
that way?” 

“ And you, Herr Count? Have I not an equal right 
to ask what do you here?” 

“ I came for a fight,” said Saxelstein. “ Now!” and 
their blades met. 

It was a grim duel in the dark — the only indication 
of the position of the opponents such as each man could 


A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 265 

gather from the feel of the swords as they met and 
kissed. The blades pressed delicately and inquisitively 
against one another, and worked gently to and fro, and 
the thrill of it passed up through the hilts, and through 
the hands that held them, and up into their arms, and 
strung their nerves like steel, so that either man could 
almost tell the other’s thoughts from the feel of the slen- 
der edge of his blade. 

Saxelstein made a feint and withdrew his sword for a 
moment, but they met again almost instantly as though 
drawn together by a powerful magnet. But the matter 
had to be ended. When the Count’s friends missed him 
they would of a certainty return in search of him, and 
Tautz must by disposed of before that happened. Sax- 
elstein therefore took the offensive, and began a series 
of rapid thrusts and twirling cuts in the supposed direc- 
tion of his opponent’s body. Suddenly there was a blaze 
of light in front of him, and a sharp report, and a sting- 
ing pain in his left shoulder. 

“ You dog!” cried the Count, and hurled himself on 
the other, and drove his sword through his breast as the 
revolver spoke once more, and the shot went whistling 
up the staircase. The Lieutenant fell in a groaning 
heap. 

“ Serves me right,” said Saxelstein, “ for thinking 
such a thing could have any notion of honour.” 

He climbed the stairs again towards the door in the 
wall, but could not find it. He could not have found it 
in daylight, still less in the dark. So he sat down to 
wait, but almost instantly he heard it open from the 
inside nearly opposite to where he sat. He got up say- 
ing quietly, 

“ Ah, thanks, I closed the door on myself, and could 
not open it from this side. Who is it?” 

“ It is I, Alicia. Come quickly. We only missed you 
when we got outside. What have you been doing ?” 
She sniffed suspiciously at the faint smell of the powder. 

“ Cleaning the steps by sitting on them,” he said. 
“ Smells close, doesn’t it ?” 

He followed her down the stair, and was grateful for 
the sharp braging of the cool night air, 


266 A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 

The others stood in a group awaiting them. 

“ The stupid fellow had shut himself out,” said the 
Princess. “ Now follow close,” and they passed on down 
the path past the pillar, and so by degrees to the road 
that led into Roystadt, and so at length to Dr. Ziemer’s 
house. 

The ladies and their maids retired at once to the 
rooms which the Doctor placed at their service, and 
took Baby Karl with them. 

“ Now, Doctor,” said Saxelstein, whose shoulder 
throbbed and shot with pain — to-morrow he knew it 
would be too stiff for use — “ why not to-night ? Find 
us fifty true men, well armed, and we can be in poses- 
sion of the Castle by daylight. It is only one o clock.” 

“ Do you know the way back into the Castle, Herr 
Count ?” asked the Doctor. 

“ No, hanged if I do.” 

“ Nor does any one but the Princess Alicia. We can- 
not ask her to do more to-night. We must wait, I fear, 
till to-morrow night.” 

“ That is a mistake,” urged Saxelstein. “ They will 
miss us and be on the alert. Now we could take them 
in their beds.” 

“ That is so, but — what do you say. Prince Alex ?” 

“ I don’t really see how we can ask Alicia to go 
all that way again to-night, but the sooner we strike the 
better undoubteldy.” 

“ I can get you the men in half an hour,” said the 
Doctor, “ but I cannot show you the way. Count Saxel- 
stein, what is this ?” he said, laying a long finger on the 
hole in the shoulder of the Count’s tunic, round which 
the cloth was taking a darker hue as the blood soaked 
into it. 

“ That is a bullet-hole. Doctor, and the man who fired 
it was Lieutenant Tautz. I ran him through for it 
while you were going down that last staircase. Now 
the chances are he is not dead, and when they find him 
in the morning he will put them on the qui vive. They 
are smart enough to know that if we could get out 
through that East Tower we can get in again. You see ’’ 
he said, with sparkling eyes, “ we must go to-night,” 


A DUEL IN THE DARK AND /• ' \K.A CE. 267 

“ That settles it, I fear,” said Prince Alex. “ Where 
was Tantz ?’ 

“ He saw us go through that last door, and fired just 
as I was closing it. I went back and waited for him, 
and then we fought it out and he went down.” 

“ Was he alone ?” 

“ Yes, just prowling round apparently and happened 
on us just one second too soon.” 

“ Yes, it must be done to night,” said the Doctor who 
had been turning it over in his mind. “ A quick blow 
may save many lives. I will have the men ready in 
half an hour. What about your arm. Count ? Shall I 
attend to it first ?” 

“ Alex will see to that while you get your men. No^v, 
old man, first aid.” 

“ We had better tell Alicia first what is required of 
her. Then she will be ready,” said Prince Alex. 

“ That is so. Will you go ? Don’t say anything about 
this,” and Prince Alex went off to find her. 

’Toinette came to the door in answer to his tap, and 
Alicia when she heard his voice called to him to enter. 

“We have been discussing matters, Alicia, and it 
seems absolutely necessary that we take our men into 
the Castle to-night.” 

“ To-night ?” she exclaimed. 

“ It may be to-night or not at all,” he said. “ Though 
I don’t at all like the idea of you going back all that 
way again. You must be fagged to death.” 

“ I am ready,’ she said, though she looked very weary. 
“ You and Saxelstein must help me along if my strength 
gives out.” 

“ In half an hour we shall be ready to start. I will 
come for you then.” 

He went back to Saxelstein, and bound up his shoulder 
neatly and deftly. 

On the stroke of the half-hour he tapped on Alicia’s 
door again. The Princess joined him instantly, and they 
went down the private stair and found Saxelstein and 
Dr. Ziemer awaiting them in the coach-house. 

“ What ? You going. Doctor ?” said the Princess. 

Surely,” he $md f “ there is work for all of iis to- 


26s A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 


night. Ibach and his men meet us at the turn of the 
road by the Castle rock.” 

They set off in silence and when they reached the 
crossroad found Ibach and his fifty stalwarts waiting, 
full of fight and curiosity as to how it was proposed to 
effect an entrance into the Castle. This matter had 
been troubling Alicia’s mind also ever since .she heard 
the suggestion to bring a force into the Castle by the 
secret way. That secret had come to her as part of her 
royal birthright, and it was sorely against the grain that 
she brought herself to the idea of making it public, but 
she comforted herself with the thought that the necessi- 
ties of the state were of greater importance than the 
preservation of roj^al secrets, and so led them straight 
and swift to the hidden door, and by the narrow steps, 
and along the passage, and through the unused rooms, 
till the v/hole ffEty-five of them stood in the passage out- 
side her own apartments. Swiftly now by those other 
secret ways to the King’s rooms, and there Alicia waited, 
while the others made their rapid dispositions for the 
seizure of the strategic points of the Castle. 

It was three o’clock when Prince Alex quietly turned 
the handle of the door that led out from the King’s cor- 
ridor into the main passage leading to the great hall and 
the grand staircase. A dozen of Von Ahlsen’s Waldo- 
vians were nominally on guard, but three-fourths of 
them sat or lay fast asleep, and the two who sat v/ith 
their backs against the door to ensure the integrity of 
the passage, rolled over at his feet with an oath as he 
drew the door open. They were pounced upon and 
gagged by those behind, as were their sleeping fellows, 
and the first point was gained. 

Then with a dozen picked men Prince Alex and Dr. 
Ziemer made for the apartments always reserved for 
the King’s Minister, while Ibach and half the remainder 
sped down the staircase to the great front gates, and 
Saxelstein and the rest stole away to the quarters occu- 
pied by the garrison, where were kept the two Maxims 
which were practically the keys of the Castle. 

Down the stairs and along the lower corridor Prince 
Alex and his party came to the Minister’s rooms. As 


A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 269 

they neared his offices they saw by a spear of light which 
lay across the passage, that the room was occupied, and 
the door ajar, and, at the sound of voices inside. Prince 
Alex raised his hand and held them all back for a moment. 

“ I have looked everywhere, and I cannot find a trace 
of him.” It was Von Ahlsen’s voice. “ What in thunder 
can he have done with himself ?” 

There was a moment’s silence and then the gruff tones 
of Grumiaux — 

“ See here. Von Ahlsen, I have trusted you and Tautz 
beyond my wont. If either of you play me false you 
will rue it. You have gone too far to draw back.” 

“ The fact that I am here ought to satisfy you ” 

“ Well, then, where is Tautz ? Why is he not here ?” 

“ Deuce take him? How can I tell ? He is your man 
not mine. I gave him your message to be here. I am 
not responsible for him. Come, let us go on without 
him. What is the next move in the game ?” 

“ The next thing is to get rid of this other lot. We 
shall never be safe until they are disposed of.” 

“ Disposed of ? How do you mean ?” 

Grumiaux’s answer was not by word of mouth but 
was sufficiently understood by the other. 

“ The devil!” said Von Ahlsen, after a pause. “ That 
is a serious matter.” 

“ It is a serious game we are playing, my friend, and 
we have got to play it through. What is that ?” 

There came a sound of a distant struggle, a couple^ of 
shots, and the quickly-suppressed shouts of men. Von 
/ !ilsen sprang up with a rattle. 

Prince Alex pushed open the door, and held him at 
the point of his revolver. The others covered the Min- 
ister who sat with his heavy face dark with passion, the 
veins in his forehead swollen almost to bursting with 
the angry leaping of the blood. 

“ Sit down,” said Prince Alex quietly to Von Ahlsen. 
“ Tautz is dead and we are in possession. The game is 

up, you see.” j /. 

Grumiaux’s right hand slipped out of the open draw of 
the table behind which he sat and quick as thought, 
“ crack’ crack! crack?” three shots flew by Prince Alex 


2/0 A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 

and struck home behind. Then from those behind hin 
there came a scattering crash, and the Minister sank for 
ward on to the table, and the red blood flowed over th( 
papers with which it was strewn. 

“ Your arms. Captain,” said Prince Alex. 

Von Ahlsen was a soldier of fortune, and a bold man 
but odds of thirteen to one offered no temptations tc 
him. He unhooked his sword and laid it on the table 
together with a pair of revolvers. Prince Alex told ofl 
a couple of men to guard him, and hastened off with the 
rest to see how it fared with Saxelstein and Ibach. 

Dr. Ziemer stopped behind and looked curiously ovei 
:he papers on the dead man’s desk. 

Prince Alex found that all had gone excellently well 
in both quarters. Ibach had the gate guard disarmed 
-md sitting sulkily in the guard-room. Saxelstein had 
oecured the Maxims, and had got them trained carefully 
on the soldiers’ quarters, which had been startled into 
wakefulness at sound of the shots by the gate. 

The men had come tumbling out of doors half awake, 
but stopped short at sight of the guns covenng them, 
and the armed men standing facing them. At the 
Count’s bidding, backed up by threats of instant annihi- 
lation, in case of hesitation, they arranged themselves 
sullenly along the wall, with as little stomach for 
fight in them as they had clothes on their backs. A 
few of the later roused came with hastily snatched 
weapons in their hand, but, quite in the dark as to 
• what was going on, without leaders, for Major Reitz 
was down below in charge of the barracks, and con- 
fronted by forty rifles and those two fiendish Max- 
j ims, all pointing hungrily at their half- clad breasts 
— for all the invaders who were not needed elsewhere 
had by this time gathered in front of them — they had 
the good sense to surrender at discretion, and the victory 
was complete and sweeping. 

Dr. Ziemer was still pursuing his inquisition among 
the papers in Grumiaux’s room. Prince Alex and Ibach 
held a hasty consultation, and then Prince Alex and 
Ibach passed out through the big gates, just as the east 


A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 2/1 

was flushing with the dawn, and went rapidly down the 
steep rock path. 

The sentry at the gate of the barracks below regarded 
them with suspicious surprise, but they passed him 
without speaking and went on into the town, Ibach 
hurrying on to call out another contingent of his follow- 
ers, while Prince Alex went straight to Dr. Ziemer’s house. 

He had no difficulty in obtaining permission. The 
Doctor’s household was all on the alert and wore an air 
of excited expectancy. They provided him with food 
and drink, and then he threw himself on to a couch to 
snatch a couple of hours’ sleep. 

At six o’clock he was roused by the entrance of Ibach, 
who announced that two hundred men were awaiting 
him in the Grand Platz. Prince Alex scribbled a brief 
note for Alix, who, he was informed, was still sleeping, 
telling her of the later events of the morning, and then 
hurried away with Ibach to carry out their prearranged 
plans. 

The armed men waiting restlessly on the Platz raised 
a cheer at sight of their leaders, and then formed up 
into a square of solid expectancy. As they drew near 
Prince Alex raised his hand, but there was no need to 
ask for silence. 

“ My friends,” he said, “ great events have been hap- 
pening up above there this morning. King Rolf as you 
know died three days ago. Herr Grumiaux proclaimed 
in his place the young Prince Karl, son of my late 
cousin Prince Karl, the son of King Johann. That ac- 
tion of Herr Grumiaux’s, we had good reason to believe, 
was dictated solely by a desire to retain the power in 
his own hands, and that, from the point of view of the 
public weal, did not commend itself to us. As to the 
accession of my little cousin we are all entirely in ac- 
cord. During the night and early morning. Dr. Ziemer 
with myself and Count Saxelstein and our good friend, 
Herr Ibach, with fifty of your comrades took possession 
of the Castle. Herr Grumiaux is dead. He fired upon 
us and was shot down. Captain Von Ahlsen is a pris- 
oner, together with the whole of the garrison. Lieuten- 
ant Tautz is dead. I now propose to offer terms to the 


2/2 A DUEL IN THE DARK AND A CLEARANCE. 

remainder of the foreigners in the barracks here. If those 
terms are accepted they will march out without arms, 
and you will see them over the frontier, along with their 
friends in the Castle. So we will free Vasco via from 
the taint of the foreigners, and, please God, we shall 
bring back the good old times of good King Johann.” 

“ Hoch!” they shouted and tossed their caps into the 
air. 

Prince Alex stood looking up at the Castle, watch in 
hand. From the Platz they could not see the great en- 
trance gates, but as he watched, round a turn in the 
rocky path there came a gleam of steel in the morning 
sunshine, the glint of rifle barrels, and the irregular bob- 
bing movement of a small body of marching men. The 
men on the Platz stood watching eagerly. The band 
from the Castle came slowly on till they reached a small 
plateau overlooking the barrack yard. There they 
halted, and set to work pushing and hauling till they got 
their two Maxims into position. A couple of men bear- 
ing a stretcher covered with a black cloth parted from 
the main body and came slowly down the road. 

Then Prince Alex knotted his handkerchief to the 
point of his sword, and walked quietly towards the big 
gate of the barracks. 

“ Major Reitz,” he cried in a ringing voice, “ I call on 
you to surrender. You have heard all I have said to 
my mxen. Your men will pile their arms and march out 
here fifty at a time. We shall convoy them to the fron- 
tier, and one week’s pay will be handed to each man as 
he crosses it. I give you fifteen minutes for the deliv- 
ery of the first fifty. If they are not out here with their 
private belongings in that time, the Maxims will open 
on you, and your blood be on your own heads. If you 
require confirmation of my statement here comes the 
body of Herr Grumiaux.” 

Major Reitz standing black and sullen inside the bar- 
rack gates heard it all plainly. He looked at the Max- 
ims. They were very convincing, and quite enough 
for him. Herr Grumiaux’s body did not interest him. 
He turned to his men and growled out the information 
to them, and gave them their orders, 


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING! 


273 


Prince Alex outside stood waiting quietly with an oc- 
casional glance at his watch. As the finger pointed to 
the fifteenth minute the big gate rolled slowly and 
heavily back, and fifty of the Moldavians came out with 
looks of sullen apprehension on their usually stolid faces. 
They were unarmed, and each man carried his small 
belongings in a hastily made bundle. Ibach tolled off 
thirty of his men as escort, and without loss of a mo- 
ment they were marched away. Another fifteen min- 
utes and another similar company came out, and were 
marched off along a different road. Then another, and 
another, till in an hour and a half the barracks were 
empty, and Major Reitz stood alone in the deserted 
yard, and Prince Alex and Ibach walked in among the 
piles of arms. 

“Major Reitz,’ said the Prince, “ you are at liberty 
to go where you will. Your work here is finished. I 
commend your good sense in accepting our terms.” 

The Major bowed grimly, and walked away to his own 
quarters. 

Thus and so was Vascovia freed from the burden and 
reproach of the aliens whom King Rolf had deemed it 
necessary to introduce to buttress his shaky throne. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING ! 

Ibach set his men to packing away the spoils of their 
bloodless victory into the armoury of the barracks, and 
as Prince Alex stood watching them he was joined by 
Count Saxelstein with his arm in a sling. He had 
waited by the Maxims on the plateau till the last batch 
of prisoners had marched away in custody, and then 
come down the slope to join his friend. They ex- 
changed a congratulatory grip. ^ ^ 

“ A capital morning’s work,” said Saxelstein exuber- 
antly. 


274 ladies and gentlemen — THE king! 

“ Yes. How goes the arm ?’ 

“ All right. A bit stiff now. Old Ziemer got the 
bullet out last night, though it was all I could do to get 
him to look at it, he was so deep in Grumiaux’s papers.” 

“ Ah, he will find a good deal to interest him there, 
no doubt.” 

“ What is the next move, now that we’ve made a clean 
sweep of the vermin ?” 

“ Ziemer will get all the machinery into proper work- 
ing order. We may safely leave all that to him. You 
had better dispose of the rascals you trapped in the 
Castle. Send them after the rest in batches of fifty. 
Better take Ibach’s advice as to the routes they shall 
take. We want to keep them as far apart as possible, 
and we are giving each man a week’s pay at the fron- 
tier. As soon as you clear them off I want to get the 
Princess Alix and young Karl back into the Castle.” 

Saxelstein breasted the rock road at once, and Prince 
Alex walked on in the direction of Dr. Ziemer’s house. 
When he quitted the Platz he found the streets crowded 
with the townspeople who saluted him with enthusias- 
tic demonstrations at the turn events had taken. 

The street in which the Doctor’s house was situated 
was packed tight with an exultant and inquisitive crowd, 
and for a time he could not make headway into it. 
Then those nearest recognized him, and shouted to the 
others to clear a way, and at last he managed to edge 
his way in. 

“ Highness, show us the King,” cried one, and the cry 
was taken up with vigour and it was “ The King, the 
King, the King,” from a thousand lusty throats. 

“ Let me go in, my friends, and I will show you the 
King,” said Prince Alex. 

So they wedged themselves into still smaller com- 
pass, and made a wavering uncertain path for him and 
in time he reached the door. 

As he went up the big staircase Alix met him at the 
top with anxious warmth of greeting. 

“ Has everything gone well ?” she asked. 

“ So very well that nothing could possibly have gone 
better. We are in complete possession.” 


ladies and gentlemen— the king! 2;5 

** I was anxious for you all,” she said. “ I had no 
idea you were going out again last night.” 

He held her hand for a moment, then bent and 
kissed it. 

“ The people want to see their King,” he said, “ Where 
is he ? And what on earth is he doing ?” he added as 
yjlls and shouts of childish laughter inside an adjoining 
room caught his ear. 

Alix smiled and opened the door. Little Karl was 
in his bath, splashing like a porpoise and repulsing all 
Leona’s efforts to get him out of it. Whenever she ap- 
proached he beat her off with his wet hands, and kicked 
the water up at her, and if she managed to lay hold of 
his little white wriggling body, he lay down flat and 
rigid, with legs and arms pressed tight against the sides 
of the bath. He was a picture of sturdy boyhood and 
high spirits, — his bright, rosy face beaded with drops of 
water, and all aglow with the excitement of the contest 
— his dark eyes sparkling — his vigorous limbs flashing 
about as though moved by electricity. 

As his mother and Prince Alex entered, the small boy 
paused for an instant to look at them with a laugh of 
merry defiance, standing straight and erect, and in a 
moment Leona had effected a strategic flank movement 
and captured him. The people outside were shouting 
themselves hoarse, but Karl and Leona, intent on their 
personal struggle, had no thought of the hubbub having 
any reference to them. 

The sun was warm and the air outside was soft and 
mild as a kiss. Prince Alex with a sudden idea dipped 
his hand into the bath and was satisfied to find it cold. 
Then, looking laughingly at Alix, he said, 

“ Take him out to them just as he is.” 

“ Oh, surely not !” 

“ It will please them immensely.” 

She laughed back at him, then took the boy out of 
Leona’s arms into her own and carried him to the win- 
dow. Prince Alex pushed it open and she stepped out 
on to the balcony. The shout that rent the air at sight 
of them reached the top of the Castle and brought anx- 
ious heads craning over the battlements to learn the 


2^6 Ladies and gentlemen— the king! 

cause of the commotion below. Hats were flung and 
hands and handkerchiefs waved, till all the street was 
a- bristle and ablaze with delight, and the little King, 
wide-eyed at sight of them, looked down on it all with 
grave astonishment for a moment, and then with no 
understanding of the matter, but infected with their 
exuberance, began to laugh merrily and to kick and 
jump in his mother’s arms, and waved one plump little 
white arm in accord with theirs. The mother’s eyes 
filled with tears, and bowing to their right royal greet- 
ing, she slowly withdrew, and the little white arm, still 
waving lustily reponsive to their shouts, was the last thing 
the people saw. 

That was how little King Karl of Vascovia was intro- 
duced to his subjects, and the people of Roystadt have 
never forgotten it. They turned to one another there 
in the street, those men and women of Vascovia, and 
though their words at the moment were few, their eyes 
were unusually bright, and if they did not speak much 
then, they have never ceased to tell of it since. 

An hour later, Alix and little Karl, attended by Prince 
Alex and Leona and an escort of twenty men, were 
climbing the rock road up to the Castle. Alicia and 
Saxelstein came down to meet them, looking eminently 
well satisfied with themselves, and with things in gen- 
eral, and gave them hearty greeting. 

“ Aunt Alicia,” shouted Karl, “ Mother took me out to 
see the people all naked, and they shouted and jumped 
and waved things.” 

“ Good gracious, child, what do you mean ? I should 
think they would jump. What were they doing all 
naked ?” 

Silly! It was me that was naked.” 

“ Oh, I see. And what made your mother do that ?” 

“ We introduced the people to their King as fully as 
we could,” said Prince Alex, “ and they seemed to 
enjoy it.” 

They reached the Castle and found the remnant of 
the new garrison drawn up round the entrance gates to 
receive them. The little King immediately ran off to 
place h’mself by them, so as to be ready when they 


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING ! 277 

Started to march, and Leona stayed to watch over him, 
and to laugh at his imitative attempts as of old. 

The others went on into the Castle, and as they passed 
the corridor leading to the Minister’s rooms, Prince Alex 
said, 

^ “ Suppose we see how our good friend Ziemer is get- 
ting on. We owe him much.” 

Dr. Ziemer started up as they entered his room, and 
came forward beaming and glowing with delight when 
he saw who his visitors were. 

“We have come to thank you. Dr. Ziemer,” said 
Alix, “ for your hospitality down below, and to congrat- 
ulate you on your success up here.” 

“ Your Highness is too kind,” said the old man bow- 
ing. “ In working for yourself and your son I work for 
Vasco via. It is not always that duty and inclination 
run so bravely together, and then — the stars fought 
for us.” 

He turned abruptly to Prince Alex. 

“ Have you seen the body of King Rolf ?” 

“ No.” 

“ They are just about to fasten it up. There is no 
trace of a wound about him. He died of apoplexy.” 

“ Oh, Doctor,” cried Alix, “ are you sure ? Are you 
quite, quite certain ? You will rid my heart of its 
heaviest burden, if it is so.” 

“ Come and see,” began the Doctor, but the ladies 
shewed do inclination for that — “ Or stay, we can prob- 
ably get at it in another way. Will your Highness,” he 
said, turning to Alicia, “ have the kindness to lead us to 
the apartment where the body was found ?” 

She led them swiftly to that north-east wing which 
Alix knew so well. 

“ Now,” said Dr. Ziemer to Alix, “ will your Highness, 
for the last time, recall the events of that night, and tell 
us as nearly as possible where you stood, and where the 
King stood when you fired at him.” 

Alix moved instantly to the spot. She had stood 
there in imagination a hundred times since that pregnant 
night. 


2/8 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN— THE KING ! 

“ Yes,” said Dr. Ziemer. “ And the King stood ’’ 

“ Exactly where you stand, Doctor.” 

“ Quite so,” said Dr. Ziemer. “ Now let us see,” and 
he faced round and moved in a straight line to the other 
side of the room, and began to minutely examine the 
panelling of the walls. The other men did the same, 
while the ladies stood watching in breathless suspense. 
Presently Saxelstein, with a shout of triumph, cried 
“ Here it is,” and pointed to a small round hole in the 
woodwork under a scroll of the carving. 

“ Your revolver threw high,” he said. “ Those pocket 
things are not the easiest to aim with — even for a 
man !”’ 

“ Oh, thank God!” said Alix. “ Dr. Ziemer, how can 
I ever thank you? My heart would never have been 
free from that load.” 

“ His passion at your defiance of him got too much for 
him. He rushed at you, and the blood rushed to his 
head,” said the Doctor quietly. 

Alix went to the screwed-up door leading to the ter- 
race and looked out for a few moments in grateful 
silence. Then they all went back towards their own 
apartments, and Dr. Ziemer followed with a smile of 
quiet satisfaction. 

But Prince Alex had the curiosity to go alone to the 
room where King Rolf’s body lay in its coffin, ready to 
be shut out of sight for ever. He bent down and looked 
at it carefully. It was not an attractive object. The 
face, coarse and bloated as in life, was no pleasant thing 
to look upon, for even death could not entirely efface the 
marks of twenty years of gross living. But it bore no 
sign of any wound. With a reluctant finger he turned 
down the collar of the uniform, saying to himself that 
he would look no further, and in the neck he found a 
small round wound. The flesh had closed over it, but 
Prince Alex had seen too many bullet wounds not to 
recognise one when he saw it. 

“ Dr. Ziemer is a very clever and a very thoughtful 
old man,” he said to himself, “ and we are very greatly 
indebted to him. Alix would never quite have forgiven 
herself.” 


ladies and gentlemen — THE KING ! 


279 


He went along to Dr. Ziemer’s office, and when the 
old man looked up inquiringly from his papers, Prince 
Alex wrung his hand and said, 

“ Dr. Ziemer, I cannot thank you enough. You have 
done a good work.” 

“ Ah,” said the old man, with a lift of the eyebrows. 
“ She was, I am sure, justified, and I think I was.” 

“ Surely,” said Prince Alex, with warmth. “ You 
have given her a peace of mind she never would have 
known.” And then he asked, “ How did you manage 


“ Very simply. There was no difficulty in learning 
from the maid who found him first just how he lay. 
The rest was easy.” 

‘‘ It was well done and I thank you again most 
heartily.” 

The old man smiled at his earnestness, and bent again 
to his work, saying quietly, 

“ She is a very charming young lady and worthy even 
an old man's devotion.” 

Prince Alex still lingered, however. 

” Tell me, Dr. Ziemer,” he said at last. “ Do you 
still think it necessary to get confirmation of the exact 
time of my cousin’s marriage f” 

Dr. Ziemer looked up again, with the glimmer of a 
smile in his eyes. 

” Personally I do not,” he said. “ I am quite satisfied, 
but it is you who are most interested.” 

“ If that is all, let it go. I also am quite satisfied, 
and shall never desire any change or raise any ques- 
tion.” 

“ Quite satisfied ?” asked the old man with a smiling 
lift of the brows which tempted confidence. 

“ Well, no,” said the Prince smiling back at him, “ not 
quite satisfied. There is still one thing I desire — ” he 
stopped short. 

“ I could perhaps guess what it is,” said Dr. Ziemer, 
” If I am right I can conceive of nothing better for Vas- 
covia. But,” he added thoughtfully, “ is your Highness 
quite satisfied that the Princess Alix will accept the situa- 
tion as it is? If I judge her aright, she is not one to sit 


2<S0 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING! 


down quietly under a compromise of any kind, or to ac- 
cept the position for her son, unless every link in the 
chain is proved beyond all possibility of question." 

Prince Alex sat down astride a chair, and drummed 
with his fingers on the back of it, and remained in a 
brown study for several minutes. 

Before he had gone through with it, a tap came at the 
door, and at the Doctor’s summons to enter there came 
in a messenger from the officer in charge of the gate. 

“ Highness and Excellency, my lord Archbishop is 
without, and demands audience of your Excellency. 
Shall we admit him?" 

“ Certainly, Herlich. Conduct him to my sitting- 
room," and as the man disappeared the Doctor turned to 
Prince Alex. “ I will ask your Highness to attend this 
audience with me. Rosenlau was one of Grumiaux’s 
appointments. We shall learn now what view the 
Church takes of the matter.” 

They proceeded to the adjoining room and found the 
Archbishop sitting there, attended by his chaplain and 
secretary. 

They stood, as Prince Alex and Dr. Ziemer entered, 
and after ceremonious greetings, my Lord Archbishop 
said suavely, 

“ Your Highness will understand how disturbing the 
events of the last few days have been to us. As head of 
the Church I have come to request information as to 
how matters really stand, and how these things have 
come about." 

“ There is but little to tell, my Lord Archbishop," 
said Dr. Ziemer. “ King Rolf died suddenly, and Herr 
Grumiaux proclaimed as his successor the little son of 
our late Prince Karl." 

“ But — but — but — " gasped the Archbishop — “ the 
son of Prince Karl ! We all know that Princess Sophie 
died childless. Whence then comes this son of Prince 
Karl ?" 

“ After Princess Sophie’s death. Prince Karl married 
his cousin, Alicia von Rothstein, while travelling 
abroad," 


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING! 28 1 

“ Married his cousin while travelling abroad ?” echoed 
the Archbishop. “ And how old is this son ?” 

“ Nearly four years.” 

“ The marriage must surely have taken place very 
shortly after Princess Sophie’s death,” said the Arch- 
bishop thoughtfully. 

“ It did, but you must remember that Prince Karl had 
been virtually separated from his wife for a very long 
time previously.” 

The Archbishop nodded. “ And this other marriage 
is all regular and valid ?” 

“ Perfectly so,” said Dr. Ziemer, “ or surely Herr 
Grumiaux would not have accepted it as such. Besides, 
the proofs are in my hands.” 

The Archbishop looked as though he would very much 
have liked to ask for a sight of them, but that would 
have been an overpassing of the bounds of courtesy, 
and besides it was Herr Grumiaux himself who had first 
proclaimed the little King. He was puzzled, and he 
shewed it in his face, though it did not come out in 
words. 

“ And Herr Grumiaux ?” he asked. 

“ It was much to be regretted,” said Dr. Ziemer 
quietly. “ His removal from office was desired by the 
royal family, as the first step towards a new and more 
liberal policy. Herr Grumiaux would not accept accom- 
plished facts. He fired upon our people and wounded 
some of them. In their anger they fired back, and he 
died.” 

“ And your Highness accepts the new state of things ?” 
asked the Archbishop, turning to Prince Alex. 

“ Absolutely,” he said. 

“ Well, well,” said the Archbishop, “ it is puzzling, not 
to say amazing, but — if — well, I suppose there is noth- 
ing to be done but accept facts as they are.” 

Dr. Ziemer bowed and the Archbishop took his leave 
and departed. 

“ You see,” said Dr. Ziemer to Prince Alex, when he 
had gone, “ the absolute necessity of proving the links, 
not for ourselves, but for her sake and the boy’s.” 

“ You are right, Doctor,” he said, “ She is the soul 


282 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING ! 

of honour. She accepts the position because she knows 
she is right, and I know it, and you know it. But all the 
same she will never be satisfied till all the world knows 
it.” 

The Doctor nodded. “ The sooner your Highness 
starts the better, and the sooner you will get back, and 
then ” 

“ Yes,” said Prince Alex, “ and then — But I am 
troubled at leaving her for so long. I cannot do it at 
best under six or eight months, and anything may hap- 
pen in the meantime.” 

“ We will do our best,” said the Doctor smiling, “ and 
for the rest you must trust to Providence.” 

“ Dr. Ziemer and Providence are two very good stand- 
bys,” said Prince Alex. 

It was not a difficult matter for Prince Alex to have a 
few confidential words with Alix after dinner that night. 
Dr. Ziemer was up to his eyes in work, and begged per- 
mission to withdraw as soon as dinner was over. Alicia 
and Saxelstein found two to be much better company 
than four, and strolled out on to the King’s terrace which 
was long enough for a score of couples to wander in 
without fear of their confidences being overheard. 

As they disappeared through the open window Prince 
Alex said quietly, 

“ Cousin Alix, will you permit me five minutes’ talk 
with you ?” 

“ Surely,” said Alix. 

“ I have been discussing matters with Dr. Ziemer this 
afternoon,” he said, “ and I have decided to set out for 
Brazil at once.” 

She started and looked up at him quickly. 

“ You do not misjudge my motive in going ?” 

“ Not for a moment. I know you wish us well.” 

“ It is because I wish you and the boy so very well 
that I am going. For myself I am satisfied, for you I 
am not. Do you understand ?” 

“ I quite understand,” she said. “ It is very good of 
you . I know the length of the journey and the risks of 
it. Is Count Saxelstein going with you ?” 

I have not asked him and do not intend to. My 


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — THE KING ! 283 

mind will be more at ease if he is here 'with you, and 
besides, it is my affair not his. If it was a matter con- 
cerning Alicia now ” 

A faint tinge of colour flushed her cheek for a moment, 
at the implication that they two stood to one another in 
a similar relation to that which existed between Alicia 
and Saxelstein. 

“ It is very good of you to undertake so much for a 
comparative stranger. But I should never feel that the 
matter was quite beyond doubt in all your minds ” 

“ Oh, I assure you it is,” he said. 

“ Well, then, in the minds of the world in general, un- 
less my words are confirmed and placed beyond doubt.” 

He nodded gravely. 

“ How long will you be away ? We shall miss you 
greatly.” 

“ It will take at least six months, perhaps more.” 

“ And there is no one you could send ?” 

“ I can trust myself better than anyone else, and this 
is a matter of such moment that I should not feel that I 
was doing my duty if I deputed it to another. No one 

else, you see, has so great an interest ” he broke off 

abruptly. His words were liable to misconstruction. 
“ If I had the slightest doubt in the matter I would not 
go,” he said. 

She nodded understandingly. 

“ I trust you implicitly,” she said, and once again 
stretched out an impulsive hand to him, as was her way, 
and once again he bent and kissed it, and still holding 
it looked into her eyes with unspoken words which quick- 
ened the beating of her heart, and sent the blood leap- 
ing through her veins and flushed her face and her fu- 
ture with roses. 


284 


WHERE IS THE KING ? 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 

WHERE IS THE KING ? 

Prince Alex waited only long enough to satisfy him- 
self that things were running smoothly in the state, 
which indeed, was only to be expected under the skil- 
ful management of Dr. Ziemer. Then, with no binding 
word between him and Alix, he started on his long and 
arduous journey. 

His heart was heavy at thought of leaving them for so 
long a time, but he had infinite faith in the Doctor, and 
implicit trust in the courage and devotion of Saxelstein. 
And so, commending them all to these two and Provi- 
dence, he turned his face to the West. 

And he had not been gone two weeks when dire 
calamity fell upon them. 

They had decided that no further official recognition 
of the accession of the little King should be made till 
Prince Alex returned from his journey. Meanwhile, 
however, Vascovia clamoured for a sight of its new 
ruler, the fame of whose ingenuous debut had spread 
through the land, and excited the liveliest interest and 
goodwill. 

The rough rock road up to the Castle was never free 
from long bobbing lines of country folks, women especi- 
ally craving sight of their Kingling, and to Alix it never 
seemed right to let them go away unrewarded. But the 
demands upon her good nature were so endless that at last 
Dr. Ziemer, as a means of giving general satisfaction, 
and at the same time affording Alix the opportunity of 
correcting her absolute ignorance of her fatherland, pro- 
posed a royal progress through the country, so that the 
very natural curiosity on both sides should be satisfied. 

The two Princesses took up the idea with enthusiasm. 
Down in the barrack yard below. Count Saxelstein 
drilled a special flying body-guard of twenty horsemen 


WHERE IS THE KING? 


285 

into a high state of perfection, and raked out from its 
place of concealment a state coach which had not been 
used for very many years, and horsed it with four long- 
tailed white Hungarians. 

Never was there more diplomatic stroke than that of 
Prince Alex when he induced the mother to take the boy 
out on to the balcony before the people that morning. 
Not a mother’s heart in all the land but glowed at thought 
of the little naked King and his fair young mother, and 
he would have been a bold man indeed who had ven- 
tured a word against them. 

And so, one bright Spring morning, all Roystadt 
turned out to see them start, and to wish them God- 
speed. And quite an imposing little spectacle they made 
— the state coach all newly done up in brilliant blue and 
white — the long-tailed Hungarians with their silver har- 
ness and blue and white outriders — Count Albert in his 
cuirassier uniform riding at the head of his stalwart 
twenty of a body-guard — and inside the great coach the 
two Princesses smiling and happy, and the little King, 
who flashed about from side to side as bright and as 
restless as a bit of quicksilver. Behind them came an- 
other carriage of less conspicuous brilliancy with Leona 
and ’Toinette and the baggage. And the people cheered 
and ran and waved and shouted, and little Karl sprang 
from window to window, and expressed a great desire to 
get out and sit on the box beside fat Johann. But this 
his mother would not permit as not being up to her ideas 
of a kingly mode of travel. 

So by degrees they wormed their way through the 
shouting crowds, and the narrow streets with their cob- 
ble stones below and their overhanging wooden storeys 
up above. They wound round the Castle rock, crossed 
the stone bridge over the Rotha, and struck into the open 
country towards Volkau, and at last they left behind 
even the cheers of the children who had followed them 
out of the town. And then they wound round the west- 
ern shoulder of the Schwarzberg, and the rock and 
Castle of Roystadt disappeared, and they felt indeed that 
their journey had begun. 

They rested that night at Volkau, and the people 


286 


WHERE IS THE KING? 


poured out tumultuously to meet them, with cheers and 
flowers and boisterous expressions of good-will. In the 
evening the little King held an informal reception in the 
burgomaster’s house, and all the women wanted to kiss 
and hug him, but as that could not be permitted they 
had to be content with looking at him, and vented their 
feelings in hearty out-spoken expressions of approval 
and commendation, both of himself and his mother and 
his aunt. 

Little Karl enjoyed it all immensely, though he under- 
stood nothing of what it all meant, or why he should so 
suddenly have become such a centre of attraction. He 
beamed and laughed upon them all, and left behind him, 
in all their hearts, the memory of a bright, healthy, 
happy little lad. 

And so, day after day, the little cavalcade svv^ept along 
the white roads, in and out among the clusters of red- 
tiled cottages, through all the lovely land of Vascovia — 
through the ripe green lowlands, bursting with fatness 
of sprouting corn and calm- eyed cattle — up among the 
myriad greens of the wooded hills — crossing the Rotha 
three separate times, at Poltsch, and Vernet, and Glan- 
natt, and greeted everywhere with shouts of welcome, 
and the hearty effusiveness of a slow, big-hearted people 
roused to an enthusiasm foreign to their natures. 

And so at last to Alplanau, where that happened which 
none of them has ever forgotten, and which Vascovia 
has never forgiven. 

Here in the Castle above the town lived Count Johann 
of Alplanau, bosom friend of old King Johann, and 
almost the last of that circle of hearty spirits which the 
old King had delighted to gather round him in his Castle 
of Roystadt. And Count Johann had prepared for them 
a right royal welcome, though he had to confess to him- 
self that he was very much puzzled as to hov/ the little 
King came to be the son of his young friend Karl, whom 
he had danced on his knee as a baby, and whom he had 
seen married and buried in the Cathedral at Roystadt, 
and whose wife, Sophie of Schwarzberg-Kohlen, he had 
also seen laid by his side in the same vault. 

Only once had he been near Roystadt since Rolf came 


WHERE IS THE KING ? 


287 

to the throne . He had lived in retirement among his 
own people, sorely worried at the troubles he foresaw for 
the land as the result of Rolf’s wild rule, but powerless 
to change matters. On that one occasion he had spurred 
himself to the point of personal remonstrance with the 
Red King, but it was the first and only time. It was an 
experience, and anything but a pleasant one. It was an 
experiment which he had never felt the slightest incli- 
nation to repeat. 

Nevertheless, in spite of the puzzling aspects of the 
case, he had implicit faith in Dr. Ziemer. Dr. Ziemer 
had accepted the boy as rightful heir to the crown, there- 
fore he undoubtedly was so, and old Count Johann pre- 
pared to welcome him in the good old open-handed way 
in which he had so many times welcomed his grand- 
father. 

It was night when they arrived, after a long six hours’ 
ride through the wildest and grandest part of all Vasco- 
via, and when, after the slow toilsome zigzag climb up 
the western flank of Barzen, they would through the 
cleft of Nikke the party drew up as one man, and gave 
vent to a great “Ah!” of surprise and pleasure. 

For below them lay Alplanau glowing like a fiery 
jewel, a lighted candle in every pane of every window 
of every house, and the great Castle above a blaze of 
light, and everywhere tiny specks of flame darting to 
and fro like startled fireflies. And as, after a pause of 
delight, they issued from the pass, a shot rang out below 
them, and from twenty mountain spurs around there 
shot up mighty tongues of fire, forking, writhing, twist- 
ing and licking at the blackness of the night. And from 
the town below there came a great fiery snake of many 
coils dashing up the mountain path towards them, which 
as it came nearer resolved itself into a procession of a 
hundred mounted men bearing lighted torches, who 
gallopped up — sparks above and sparks below — and 
circled round them with shouts of welcome, till the long- 
tailed Hungarians snorted and stamped and sweated with 
fear, and four of the riders pitched away their torches and 
flung themselves from their horses, and hung bodily on 
to the Hungarians’ heads, and soothed them with uncouth 


288 


WHERE IS THE KING ? 


comforting whinnyings. Then when they got safely down 
to the level half-mile stretch that leads to the town, they 
all set spurs to their horses, and cried to the outriders 
to give the Hungarians their heads and the whip, and 
with a whirl and a roar, through a lane of standing 
torch-holders, they swept through the town and up to 
the gates of the Castle. 

Here Count Johann stood on the bottom step awaiting 
them, his white head gleaming silvery in the light of 
many torches. He opened the carriage door himself 
and bent a courtly knee, stiff with age and lack of use in 
that respect, to the three-year-older inside, lifted him 
out and kissed him, on both cheeks. Then he handed 
out the ladies, and then, with old-world grace and words 
of hearty welcome, with the little lad’s left hand in his 
right, he led the way up the steps through a bobbing, 
curtseying line of retainers and local notables into the 
large hall of the Castle, where half-a-dozen long tables 
stood groaning hospitably under the burden of a mighty 
feast. 

Little Karl was tired out with the long day’s ride in 
the keen air of the hills, coming at the end of a whole 
week’s constant travelling. His drooping eyelids belied 
his vehement assertions that he was not the very least 
little bit sleepy, and King or no King, his mother or- 
dered him off to bed at once, as soon as he had had 
something to eat. 

But Count Johann had invited his friends and neigh- 
bours from far and near to welcome their new sovereign, 
and it would never do to disappoint the good folks 
altogether, so, after his little supper upstairs, the sleepy 
small boy was permitted to come down again for just 
one- quarter of an hour to receive the congratulations 
and good wishes and inquisitive regards of the invited 
guests. 

Then he was packed off to bed, and as soon as his 
mother came down again, they all sat down to the feast 
which Count Johann had prepared for them, the old 
gentleman beaming at the head of the centre table, and 
having Alix on the one side and Alicia on the other. 

The feast proceeded merrily and was drawing near to 


WHERE IS THE KING? 


2S9 

its end. Count Johann had bidden them all stand with 
full cups to drink the little King’s health, and the 
hearty “ Hochs !” were still echoing among the invisible 
rafters of the high roof, when from above them came a 
scream, shrill and curdling, and in another moment 
Leona came flying down the broad staircase like one 
distraught, and with the face of one who has seen a 
ghost. 

“ He is gone ! He is gone !” she cried to her mistress 
in her own tongue. 

At her first shrill scream a startled silence fell on the 
company below. At sight of the terrified girl they all 
rose to their feet, straining towards her and asking 
amazedly what was wrong. But Alix was already half- 
way up the staircase, with Alicia and Saxelstein at her 
heels, and Count Johann labouring heavily in the rear. 
When the others reached the bedroom they found Alix 
standing, marble white, by the empty little bed glaring 
at it in stony-eyed amazement. 

“ My boy!” she gasped as they burst into the room 
after her, and as her eyes fell on Count Johann, “ Where 
is he ? Where is my boy ? What have you done with 
him ?” 

After one hasty glance round Alicia and Saxelstein 
had passed into the other rooms, and were ranging them 
in feverish haste, but they were back in a few minutes 
white-faced and empty-handed. Had the boy been 
snatched up to Heaven he could not have disappeared 
more completely, or left less trace of his passage. 

Poor old Count Johann stood before the stricken 
mother speechless and helpless, his eyes starting with 
inexpressible dismay, and he looked suddenly shrunken 
and frail. 

“ What have you done with him ?”asked Alix again in 
a voice that cut like a knife. 

The old man essayed to speak. His thin lips worked 
convulsively but no sound came. He made as though 
to lift a hand of denial, and then he fell— as an image of 
snow collapses when the sun has wrought too long upon 
it — fell at her feet in a stricken heap, and lay as he had 
fallen. And Alix looked down on him with eyes as cold 


WHERE IS THE KING ? 


2gO 

and as unconcerned for him as though he had indeed 
been no more than the ruins of a snow man, for all the 
fount of her humanity was frozen within her at her loss. 

But Saxelstein was moving. He ran down the stair- 
case and cried to the wondering guests, 

“ Friends, our little King has disappeared — stolen 
maybe. — Scatter and find him or the name Alplanau 
shall be for ever accursed in all Vascovia.” 

The bursting of a shell would not have created half 
the consternation his words wrought in them, nor have 
scattered them half as quickly. For a moment each 
man looked at his neighbour, half doubting his ears. 
Then with one mind they poured out into the night. 

Saxelstein with half a dozen torchmen was already 
examining the ground beneath little Karl’s windows, but 
it was bare rock and told no tales. Up in the room 
itself Alicia had been questioning Leona in broken 
Spanish and a white heat of eager anxiety. The stricken 
old man had been carried away by some of his people. 
Alix sat on the bedside, white and tense with grief, her 
hands knitted tight to keep her brain from spinning into 
a faint or a fit of hysterics. 

Leona’s story was of the simplest. 

“ I left the boy sleeping quietly and came out to the 
gallery and leaned over to watch, leaving the door ajar. 
When I went back the door was closed and the boy was 
gone.” 

As she spoke the night wind blew the window slightly 
open, and it fell to again with a metallic click. 

“ Was that open when you left the room ?” asked 
Alicia. 

“ I do not know. Highness. I did not know of it,” 
said the girl. 

Alicia leaned out of the window, and looked down at 
the men below, bending and searching with their 
torches. 

“ Albert,” she cried, and Saxelstein looked up at her, 
“ this window was found open. Someone has taken him 
through this way.” 

Saxelstein swore a great round oath, and turned to 
speak rapidly to the men. At his bidding one ran off 


WHERE IS THE RING? 


29! 

to find tlic Count’s steward, and another to bid the 
twenty Roystadters to be ready for the road in five 
minutes. The steward met him at the door of the hall 
as he sprang up the steps. 

“ He has been kidnapped,” said Saxelstein. “ Carried 
off through the window. Now tell me, is there anyone 
round here capable of a deed such as that ?” 

“ Not a soul, Excellency,” said the man. “ The men 
of Alplanau are true men.” 

“ Any strangers round lately ?” 

“ Not that I have heard of. Excellency. The people 
have come from far and near to see the little King, but 
I have heard tell of none but our own people of Vas- 
covia.” 

“ What roads lead out of Alplanau, and where to ?” 

The one you came by over Barzen, that leads through 
the town and over the frontier at Beltnau, twenty miles 
away. Another leads south into Karakof and north into 
Imsch. There is another road over the hills into Poltava, 
but there are cross-country tracks in many directions.” 

The twenty from Roystadt rode out through the arch- 
way from the stables, one of them leading the Count’s 
horse. He leaped into the saddle. 

“ Let your men beat all the country near at hand. 
And search the town. We will go further afield. Fcr 
your master’s sake see to it.” 

Then he galloped off into the town with the twenty 
clattering at his heels. 

The streets were filled with wondering townsfolk, and 
men on horseback were riding aimlessly about. Saxel- 
stein caught one by the arm. 

“ We are all wasting time,” he said. “ I am Count 
Saxelstein and I am responsible for the King’s safety. 
He has been kidnapped and carried off along the south 
road. Find ten of your fello ' s and ride like hell along 
that road. Search everywhere, ask everywhere, and 
don’t come back till you have found him. I follow with 
my men.” 

With hoarse cries, “ Heinrich ! Hubert! Fritz! Lud- 
wig!” the man collected a dozen of his fellows, and in 
five minutes Saxelstein heslrd the thud of their horses’ 


292 WHERE is tHE KING ? 

hoofs as they pounded away at full gallop along the 
south road. 

With the same positive assertions and instructions, he 
started similar parties off along the road over Barzen, 
and along the frontier road to Beltnau, and one along 
the road to Imsch. and another along the hill road to 
Podara, telling each party that the kidnappers were on 
that road in front of them, and only needed looking for 
to be found. One of his men he sent off with orders 
never to draw rein till he reached Roystadt, where he 
was to inform Dr. Ziemer of this great misfortune, and 
beg of him to come to them at Alplanau with the least 
possible delay. For Saxelstein, bold as a lion, ready at 
all times for a fight, felt that this was a case where the 
cool, clear brain of the diplomat would probably carry 
them further than all their combined hot-headed cour- 
age and energy. Then, retaining one of his men as or- 
derly, he bade the remainder each gather together a com- 
pany of townsmen and beat carefully along every track 
that led out of Alplanau into the surrounding country. 

“ Ride well out,” he said, “ then spread and beat in 
towards the town. If it is kidnappers, and it looks like 
it, they would not stop till they had got well away.” 

He could do no more. The whole town was out 
searching the nearer country, and in the narrow streets 
the burgomaster, with a posse of men, was going from 
house to house making careful inquisition which they 
all knew beforehand to be useless. 

Heavy-hearted Count Albert turned his horse’s head 
towards the Castle, swearing to himself that he would 
sooner charge a battery single-handed than face that 
woebegone mother and the inevitable question and 
answer. 

She heard him dismount, and stood waiting at the 
foot of the staircase as he came into the hall. But there 
was no need of speech between them. Standing there, 
pale and large-eyed, she was herself her own question, 
and he answered her with a gloomy shake of the head. 
She leaned against the rail of the balustrade for a 
moment, then turned silently and climbed the stairs 
again. 


WHlSRE TS the king? 


293 

Her attitude was so full of anguish that he had to say 
something to hearten her. 

“We are doing all possible,” he said. “ Every man in 
the town is out on the search, and I have sent for Dr. 
Ziemer to come here as fast as he can.” 

She just raised her clinging hand from the rail with an 
eloquent gesture of despairing thanks, and passed out of 
his sight. He threw himself into a chair by one of the 
tables and slaked his thirst with a big draught of wine. 

“ How is it with your master ?” he asked of one of the 
servants. 

The man shook his head slowly. 

“ Badly, we fear. Excellency. The physician is with 
him but he has never moved since they laid him on his 
bed. This has been a bad night for Alplanau.” 

“ Ay,” said the Count, “ a bad night for all of us. I 
would give five years of my life to have my fingers on 
the throats of the thrice damned scoundrels who have 
done it.” 

“ Excellency, no man of Vascovia would do such a 
deed. It is some of the foreigners.” 

“ Like enough,” nodded Saxelstein. “ The thing is to 
find them.” 

Presently Alicia came gliding down the stairs to him. 

“ You have no news of him yet, Albert ?” she asked, 
with what seemed to the Count an exasperating accent 
of reproach. 

“ No,” he said sulkily. “ We have no news of him,” 
and then after an awkward little pause, in order 
to relieve the situation which seemed likely to become 
strained. “ How did that fool of a girl come to lose him ?” 

The Princess explained and Count Albert snorted 
savagely. 

She deserves whipping,” he said. 

“ We don’t whip women in Vascovia.” 

“ I expect they do in her country, and you have spoiled 
her among you.” 

“ You think he has been kidnapped ?” 

“ Undoubtedly.” 

“ And vrhat is being done ?” 

“ Everything. A hundred men are out beating every 


294 the reproach of ALPLANAU. 

road that leads to anywhere. The town has been 
searched, and all the townsmen are raking over the 
nearer country, and I have sent for old Ziemer.” 

“You may give me a kiss, Albert,” she said. 


CHAPTER XXXVIL 

THE REPROACH OF ALPLANAU. 

Horsemen began dropping in from time to time, des- 
pondent at their own want of success, but anxiously 
hopeful that others had fared better. So the dimness of 
morning brightened into day, and the day wore on, every 
hour bringing fresh disappointments. 

Not a trace had they found of the little King and his 
abductors. The only satisfactory thing that happened 
was the arrival of Dr. Ziemer, who rode up about noon 
Vv'ith Saxelstein’s orderly at his heels. The old man had 
done the sixty- five miles, mountain roads and passes and 
all, in little over six hours, but he dismounted as quietly 
as though just returning from a morning canter along 
the Schwartzberg road. 

“ This is a ghastly business. Count Saxelstein,” he 
said gently. “ Will you tell me just all you know about 
it ?” 

Saxelstein told him in brief terse sentences. 

“ Poor old Alplanau,” said Dr. Ziemer, when he heard 
about the Count. “ It will be the death of him. You 
have done all you possibly could. Count Albert, but I 
fear nothing will come of it all. It is undoubtedly a case 
of kidnapping. They would make for the nearest fron- 
tier, that is, by way of Beltnau, and would be over it be- 
fore your men could possibly get there. Their lives 
were in their horses’ feet and they knew it.” 

“ And whom do you suspect, Doctor, and what have 
they done it for ?” 


THE REPROACH OF ALPLANAU. 295 

“ Kidnappers act either from revenge or for ransom. 
It is probably some of otir discarded foreigners ” 

Saxelstein’s eye caught his and held it. 

“ Whom do you mean ?” said Dr. Ziemer. 

“ Von Ahlsen ? — Reitz — ?” 

“ Yes, I have thought of them. It is quite possible. 
No doubt they are capable of it, and it would satisfy 
them on both counts.” 

“Will they hurt the boy ? His mother is nearly dead 
with anxiety.” 

“ I will see her at once. It is more than likely, indeed 
everything points to its being a case of ransom. If so 
we shall hear from them before long with their terms.” 

He asked to be shown up to Alix at once, and with 
his entrance into her room, she felt an instant sense of 
comfort in his quiet air of wisdom and experience. He 
was to her a tower of refuge in this time of dire and in- 
explicable trouble. She felt as does a nervous patient 
when the physician in whom she has every confidence 
has taken her case in hand — “ Whatever can be done 
will now be done, and all I have to do is to trust myself 
entirely in this man’s hands.” 

It was that same feeling in the hearts of the people 
that had made Dr. Ziemer a leader of men, and a power 
in the land. The very look of the man at once invited 
and inspired confidence. He would have made a model 
father confessor, and in such limited sphere would have 
acquired enormous influence over his flock. But he had 
chosen the larger field and by these same characteristics 
wielded the larger power. 

“ Oh, Dr. Ziemer, thank God you are come !” burst 
out Alix, half hysterically, as he entered the room. 
“ Now we shall know what to do.” 

He bent and kissed her hand. 

“ My dear child,” he said still holding the throbbing 
hand, “ it is a calamity that has befallen us, but there is 
no need for such grievous distress. The boy will be 
quite safe, and will be returned to us all right in time. 
It is, I expect, simply a question of money.” 

“ Qh, Doctor, do you think so ? You give me hope. I 


296 THE REPROACH OF ALPLANAU. 

have been in despair. I thought him lost for ever, and 
we seemed able to do nothing.” 

“ Count Saxelstein has done everything that possibly 
could be done, but I do not expect any results from it 
all, beyond possibly, the certain proof of the futility of 
all his efforts.” 

“ What do you think, then ?” 

“ The boy has been kidnapped, undoubtedly. You 
were probably followed from the very day you left 
Roystadt. The opportunity came and was instantly 
seized. They were probably half way to the frontier 
before the pursuit started.” 

“ And what do they want with him ?’” 

“ Money, I should say. There can be nothing else, 
and for that very reason they will take every care of 
him. Alive they can demand their own price for him. 
Dead they would get nothing. Ergo, your Highness, he 
is not only alive and well, but excellently well cared for.” 

Alix clasped her hands. 

“ There is some small comfort in believing that,” she 
said. “ But to think of my little lad in their hands. 
Whom do you suspect ?” 

“ I have no possible clue,” he said, “ but I can imag- 
ine it quite likely to be some of the foreigners we dis- 
missed.” 

“ The wretches ! What harm have I ever done 
them ?” 

“ None, therefore no harm will come to the boy. To 
them he is a valuable piece of merchandise, and repre- 
sents an)Thing they like to ask for him. You may be 
quite sure they will take every care that their merchan- 
dise is undamaged.” 

“ And what is the first thing to be done ?” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ Nothing ? Oh, surely ” 

“ We can do nothing but wait, — the hardest thing in 
the world to do and the severest test of courage, but it 
is absolutely the only thing to be done.” 

“ Wait for what ?” 

“ Till we hear from them. Before long they will 


THE REPROACH OF ALPLANAU. 297 

formulate their demands. Then we shall know where 
we are, and what to do.” 

“ Know where we are, or they are ?” 

“ They will take very good care we don’t know where 
they are, but we shall get the boy back all the same.” 

“ I was hoping to start out myself and look for him as 
soon as I had asked you where to go.” 

“ Ay, that is it. Where would you look ? By this 
time he may be in Vienna, or Paris, or London, or at all 
events well on the road thither.” 

She could only look at him in blankest dismay. 

“ Paris? — London? — ” she gasped. 

“ Most likely London, as police surveillance is so slight 
there, but we shall hear from them shortly, without 
doubt, and the sooner we get back to Roystadt the 
better, for they will communicate with us there. There 
might be something from them even by this time.” 

“ Oh, let us go !” said Alix, springing up as though 
to start on the instant. 

“With your Highness’s permission, to-morrow morn- 
ing,” he said with a quiet smile. “ An old body cannot 
stand so much as a young one, and I don’t ride sixty- 
five miles before breakfast every morning.” 

“ Oh, Doctor, pray forgive me ! You have eaten noth- 
ing since you arrived. Sit down there ;” she pushed 
him hurriedly into a chair, and sped out of the room. 

She was back in five minutes with a maid carrying a 
well-spread tray, the contents of which Alix arranged on 
the table with her own hand, and poured out wine for 
him. 

“ Will your Highness not join me?” said the old man. 
“ ril be bound you have tasted nothing since this hap- 
pened.” 

“ It is true,” she said, “ and I begin to feel the need of 
it. Yes, I will join you. Doctor.” 

She sent off the maid for further supplies, and was sur- 
prised to find herself able to enjoy the food. 

“ You have given me hope and appetite. Doctor. I 
felt sick at thought of eating, or doing anything but seek- 
ing my boy.” 

“ I know,” said Dr. Ziemer. “ When you reach my 


298 THE REPROACH OF ALPLANAU. 

age you will have learnt that the machine won’t work at 
its best unless it is kept in order, and neither body nor 
brain can do their duty unless they are fed.” 

“ How is Count Johann?” he asked. 

She shook her head. 

“ My grief is making me selfish. I have been too much 
wrapped up in my own trouble to think of his.” 

“ From what I hear he has had a bad stroke. I doubt 
if he will recover.” 

“ Oh, Doctor!” 

“ Yes,” he said quietly. “ That is likely to be the 
worst part of the business. He is a very old man and 
has been very hard hit. I will go and see him presently, 
and try to hearten him up, if he has recovered his 
senses.” 

All through the day the riders kept coming back from 
the country. None brought any news but all came in 
hoping that the others had been more successful. 

The party whom Saxelstein had started on the road 
to Beltnau, however, had not yet returned, nor was there 
any word from them. It was not till nightfall that the 
weary men came straggling back into the village, and 
brought with them the first piece of authentic informa- 
tion. Two horsemen had crossed the frontier at Beltnau 
an hour before the pursuers reached it. They were 
riding hard and had taken the road towards the south. 
The men from Alplanau had followed the great south 
road for a distance of eight or ten miles, but had found 
no further trace of them. 

“ They were making for the railway at Bindon,” said 
Dr. Ziemer. He had gone down with Saxelstein to the 
burgomaster’s house to get the latest news. 

“ And the boy? Was he with them?” 

“ Excellency, they were cloaked from head to foot, and 
might have carried anything. They avoided the guard 
house, and struck across country. They must have done 
the same at every village for no one remembered seeing 
them pass.” 

“You have done all that was possible to do, my friends,” 
said Dr. Ziemer, “ and we are very greatly indebted to 
you all for your efforts. Will you, mein Herr,” he said 


‘‘WE HOLD THE KING.” 299 

to the burgomaster, ‘‘ convey our thanks to the towns- 
people. The little King will be recovered in time with- 
out doubt, and if ever we lay hands on the rascals they 
shall be sent to Alplanau for punishment.” 

“ Might it be to-morrow!” said the burgomaster fer- 
vently, and then he asked Dr. Ziemer anxiously. 

“ How goes it with our Count, Excellency?” 

Dr. Ziemer shook his head sadly. 

“ He is the greatest sufferer, indeed I fear the worst 
for him, but all that man can do for him is being done. 
The rest is with God.” 

And in the silence of a great sorrow, for their old 
Count was very dear to the men of Alplanau, they separ- 
ated, and Dr. Ziemer and Saxelstein returned to the 
Castle. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

“ WE HOLD THE KING.” 

They started for home early next morning, Alix’s 
eager hopes of news awaiting them at Roystadt out- 
stripping their progress, though they travelled fast, and 
with only two halts to breathe their horses, and arrived 
within sight of the Castle of Roystadt shortly after mid- 
day. 

The townsfolk flocked out to meet them, eager for 
news, and when they learned that their little King was 
still amissing, they vented their feelings in words deep 
and expressive. 

Arrived at the Castle, Dr. Ziemer ripped open his 
letters with the rest standing anxiously around him. 
But there was nothing touching the only subject that in- 
terested them, and with a sigh, Alix set herself to the 
patient waiting, than which no harder lot ever falls to 
man or woman. 

So the days dragged heavily on, hope centering each 
morning on the post-bag, disappointment shadowing the 


300 


“ WE HOLD THE KING. 


M 


rest of the day, till from its ashes rose the little white 
flower again, and reached out towards the next morn- 
ing’s mail-bag as towards a veritable sun and source of 
life. 

It was weary work, and at times as the days passed 
and brought no news of her boy, Alix’s courage failed, 
and she broke down at thought of the little lad in the 
hands of these cruel and desperate men. Then she 
locked herself up in her room, and dropped on her knees 
by the side of her bed, and buried her face in it, and 
wrestled with herself till she was spent, and by degrees 
hope and trust came back to her. 

One night, indeed, so distorting is the extremity of 
grief and ever- disappointed expectancy, she found her- 
self wondering wildly if Prince Alex could have any 
hand in this matter. Who but he would be the chief 
gainer if her boy was never restored ? Was it possible ? 
The hideous idea grew into a nightmare, and hunted her 
through the long watches of the night, till she grew 
frightened for her brain that it could harbour such a 
thought. She rose hastily as soon as it was light and 
went to join Alicia, and the hideous phantom fled. 

And that morning’s mail-bag brought them the long- 
hoped-for first communication from the abductors. It 
was a large flat registered envelope, bearing a French 
stamp, and the Paris post-mark, and out of it, as Alix 
tore it open, fell a cabinet photo of little Karl upon which 
she pounced hungrily, and devoured it with eager eyes. 
It was a capital photograph by Reutlinger. The little 
lad looked well and handsome, though the merry high- 
spirited look which they all knew so well was awanting. 
The accompanying letter in a hand- writing with which 
none of them were familiar was brief and to the point. 

“ The boy is well but wants his mother. She can 
have him for one million florins. When this offer is ac- 
cepted, advertise in the London Times ^ ‘ Karlchen, ac- 
cepted,’ and you will hear from us further.” 

They looked at Dr. Ziemer with eyes of amazement, 
Alix indeed scarce daring to look. The sum demanded 


“ WE HOLD THE KING.” 3OI 

appalled her. Why should the State pay any such price 
for her boy ? 

“ That is all right,” said Dr. Ziemer quietly, tapping 
the envelope against his long white fingers. “ Now we 
are in touch with them. They will leave Paris and go 
to London as I expected. In Paris we could find them, 
in London we cannot.” 

“ What will you do. Doctor ?” asked Alix nervously. 

“ Advertise at once,” he said briskly, “ and see what 
comes next. The closer we can get to them, the better.” 

The next post carried Dr. Ziemer’s letter to his agent 
in London, and the advertisement duly appeared in the 
Times ^ and on the third day after its appearance the 
next communication was received from the kidnappers. 
It bore an English stamp, and was postmarked “ West 
Strand, W. C.” 

It ran as follows : — 

“ You have decided wisely. Your messenger will bring 
the equivalent of the sum named in English banknotes 
to a place we will indicate. When the money is ready 
advertise the words, ‘ Karlchen, ready,’ and we will send 
full instructions. Time will be taken to change the notes 
into gold. If any attempt is made to stop the notes or 
to follow the person who receives them and changes 
them, the boy will be put away beyond all chance of re- 
covery ” 

“ Will they kill him ?” gasped Alix. 

“ Not necessarily,” said Dr. Ziemer. “ There is no 
doubt more than one way in which they could dispose of 
him in England, or America, without our ever being 
able to discover him.” 

“ I must go to London,” said Alix. 

In any case he will not be restored till the money in 
gold reaches the right hands. Then he will be left to be 
called for at a certain hotel, the name of which will be 
sent to you. We are absolute masters of the situation, 
we hold the King, and these terms and conditions are 
final. If you want him back, you will have to trust ti§ 
to tWs extent and take the risks,” 


302 


'' WE HOLD THE KING. 


“ Dr. Ziemer, I must go to London at once,” said Alix. 

And Dr. Ziemer nodded. 

By Dr. Ziemer’s advice Alix quitted the Castle that 
night by the little private door among the rocks. The 
Doctor’s carriage, with Ibach on the box, awaited her on 
the road below, and she drove quietly away and unosten- 
tatiously boarded the night train at Engelstadt fifteen 
miles away. Thence she travelled night and day till she 
reached London. Arrived there, she took up her quar- 
ters in a quiet hotel near the Temple Gardens, giving 
her name as Mrs. Charles Roustaine, and after a night’s 
much needed rest, took cab next morning and drove to 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, to enlist the assistance of Geoffrey 
Chillingham in this latest disaster. 

But here she was disappointed. Chillingham had had 
to take a sudden run across to the States, in connection 
with some Company matters, and was not expected back 
for at least three weeks. She took another cab and 
drove off at once to New Scotland Yard and requested 
an interview with the Chief Commissioner, Sir Edward 
Buxton. She refused to disclose her business to any but 
himself, and sent up one of the cards she had printed at 
Valparaiso with the name Mrs. Charles Roustaine, and in- 
scribed it “ urgent and important.” 

After some delay she was shown up to the Commis- 
sioner’s room. Sir Edward stood awaiting her and re- 
quested her to take a seat. 

She glanced at the secretary who was busy at a side 
table. 

“ May I speak to you in the first place absolutely in 
private ?” she said to the Chief Commissioner. “ Then 
you can judge what course to take.” 

She had drawn up her veil and Sir Edward looked at 
her quietly for a moment, and then bade the secretary 
retire. 

“ Now, Madame,” he said gently. 

“ I am Princess Alicia Von Rothstein of Vascovia — ” 

Sir Edward’s shrewd eyes betokened an accession of 
interest. 

“ My little son Karl has just been proclaimed King. 
Eighteen days ago he was kidnapped and the men whp 


** WE HOLD THE KING.” 


303 

stole him demanded a ransom of a million florins. I 
have come to beg your help. See, here are their letters 
and the photograph they sent of my boy, taken by them 
in Paris. They have him here in London, or at all 
events, in England. 

Sir Edward read the letters carefully, and looked at 
the photograph, and then raised his keen eyes to the 
sweet troubled face in front of him. 

“ We will do everything in our power. Your Highness. 
You can, of course, recover the boy by paying the money, 
and meanwhile they are not likely to harm him.” 

“ But it is terrible to think of our country having to 
pay such a sum. They never heard of me or my boy 
till two months ago. Stay, I will tell you;” and very 
briefly she outlined her story. 

“ If I can save them all that money I am desirous of 
doing so, and I want those men caught and punished.” 

“ Yes, I see. Do you know them ?” 

“ I should recognize one of them if they are the men 
we think — Captain von Ahlsen and Major Reitz.” 

“ Would they recognize you ?” 

“ Von Ahlsen might. Major Reitz not, I think.” 

“ It is absolutely essential that they should not know 
you are here, or they will bolt again, to America per- 
haps. Was any announcement made of your coming ?” 

“ None. I came away quietly by night, and for all 
the Roystadters know, I am still up in the Castle.” 

The Commissioner nodded. 

“ I wiU introduce to you the very best man I have. 
Inspector Doane, and he shall take charge of the mat- 
ter.” 

Alix bowed and the Commissioner touched a bell on 
the table. 

“ If Inspector Doane is in the house, ask him to come 
to me at once,” he said to the man who answered the bell 

Within two minutes Inspector Doane was with them. 
His well-knit, athletic figure, and clean-shaven, well-cut, 
decisive face impressed Alix at once in his favour. 

“ Doane,” said the Commissioner, “ this lady is the 
Princess Alicia of Vascovia, mother of the little King 
pf country. He has been l^idnapped, presunaably 


304 


WE HOLD THE KING.’’ 


by two dismissed officers of the army there, Captain 
von Ahlsen and Major Reitz. They have him here in 
London and they demand 1,000,000 florins before they 
will restore him. There are their letters, there is the 
boy’s photograph, taken a few days ago by them in 
Paris. We want the boy recovered, and, if possible, the 
scoundrels caught and the money saved.” 

Doane’s eyes sparkled. This was a case he would en- 
joy working, and the pale, sweet-faced, dark-eyed girl 
with the heavy trouble upon her appealed strongly to 
him. 

“ We will find him,” he said with assurance that 
brought somewhat of comfort to Alix’s soul, “ and mean- 
while, Madame — Your Highness — rest assured they will 
not harm him. He is much too valuable.” 

He examined the letters and the photograph. 

“ You are prepared to pay the money if necessary ?” 
he asked presently. 

“ If necessary, yes.” 

“ It may be necessary to do so, but if we have to, we 
will certainly try our level best to get it back. Where 
can I find you, Madame — your Highness ?” 

“ I am staying at the Hotel under the name of Mrs. 
Charles Roust aine.” 

” I shall have the pleasure of calling on you there this 
afternoon. Will you be in ?” 

“ I shall be in. I have only one object in life at 
present — to find my boy.” 

She took leave of the Commissioner, who showed her 
down to her cab himself, and then Doane went thought- 
fully back to his own room. 

He called on Alix at the Temple Hotel in the after- 
noon and plunged right into the business. 

“ Your Highness has the money all ready ?” 

“ I have a draft for ;^ioo,ooo on the Bank of Eng- 
land. 

“ Good. I advise not answering the advertisement at 
present. With your assistance we will look round for a 
day or two, and possibly we may find out where these 
men are stopping. Then we will answer the advertise- 
jnent, hand over the cash according to their directions^ 


“ WE HOLD THE ICING.’* 305 

and we will try to follow it as soon as the boy is safely 
in our hands. I am going to advise every banker in 
Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Germany to be on 
the lookout for a big influx of English banknotes. It 
give us a clue, but they will almost certainly in- 
sist on notes of certain denominations, and until we hear 
from them we cannot tell what those may be. It might 
be a thousand of ;£‘ioo each, or a hundred of ;^i,ooo 
each, or two hundred of ;^5oo each, or — in fact, it is 
impossible to say. But as soon as we know the exact 
number of the notes an additional circular will be sent 
out instantly, requesting information as to where those 
notes come from. You are sure they do not know of 
your being in London ?” 

“ They cannot possibly know.” 

“ Then they will have to allow a couple of days for 
you to arrange with your peoplo in Vascovia to hand 
over the notes. That will do us admirably. Write at 
once to your friends there to wire instantly the style of 
payment they require. I shall then have nearly two 
days in which to send out the numbers of the notes. 
You understand ?” 

“ Perfectly.” 

“ And post your letter yourself — or vTite it now, and 
I will post it as I go out.’ 

Accordingly Doane sent out a confidential circular to 
every manager of every bank and exchange office 
throughout Great Britain, France, Germany, and Bel- 
gium advising them of a great fraud having been per- 
petrated, and asking them to advise him instantly by 
wire of any sudden influx of Bank of England notes. 
The actual numbers he promised to send in a further 
circular within the course of a few days. 

During the next three days and nights, Alix, under 
the guidance of Inspector Doane, undertook a series of 
Dantesque visits to various resorts which the detec- 
tive’s experience told him were likely to be frequented 
by Von Ahlsen and Reitz, while their plans were matur- 
ing. Of where she went and what she saw, her mind 
retained no recollection. There was only one thought 
in her heart— her boy. Her anxious eyes sought only 


WE HOLD THE KING. 


306 

one face — Von Ahlsen’s. But the days and the nights 
passed and brought them no success. At eight o’clock 
each evening Doane called for her in a private brougham, 
and whirled her from theatre to music hall, and every 
likely place of entertainment, visiting sometimes the 
same place two or three times in an evening. Alix 
began to get paler and more anxious-eyed than ever, 
fearing lest, after all, she should not recognize Von 
Ahlsen or that he might have so altered his appearance 
that she could not possibly do so. 

On the third night, however, Doane drove her up to 
the Alhambra for the second time that evening. 

“ We will just take one more look round here before 
going home,” he said, with cheerful imperturbability, — 
he had gone through too many disappointments of this 
kind to permit them to have any effect on his spirits. 

They walked round the promenade to the further side 
and leaned over the balustrade looking down upon the 
benches filled with well-dressed men and gaily attired 
women, over whom the smoke hung thick in a fragrant 
cloud. 

Alix’s tired eyes ranged hopelessly over the serried 
rows of vacuous faces, and she was about to turn away 
sick at heart at these constant disappointments, when 
suddenly she gripped Doane ’s arm, and whispered, 

“ There ! — fifth row from bottom — seat next the pas- 
sage.” 

It was undoubtedly Von Ahlsen, and the sudden real- 
ization of her hopes set her heart leaping so that she 
could hardly speak. 

Doane took a long and careful look at the occupant of 
the end seat on the fifth row. Then leading Alix to an- 
other position, where Von Ahlsen could not possibly see 
her in case he happened to look round, he begged her to 
remain till he returned, and disappeared. 

Alix leaned over the rail of the promenade and watched 
the two men down below, smoking and drinking and en- 
joying the ballet. The man next to Von Ahlsen, to whom 
he occasionally turned and spoke, she supposed was 
Major Reitz, but she had never seen him, and she could 
not say for certain. 


“ WE HOLD THE KTNG.” 307 

“ Deuced fine show, don’t you think ?” said a voice at 
her elbow. 

She felt hot and cold all over, but did not turn. 

“ Fine show, isn’t it ?” said the voice again. 

She turned slightly away from the speaker, but the 
hint was lost upon him. 

“ Oh, come now,” he said, “ don’t be shy. Have a bottle 
of fizz with me ?” 

She turned then and launched a torrent of German at 
him in a low hurried whisper. 

“ Aw, nong comprong,” and with a last yearning look 
he was sauntering away after other prey, when Doane 
returned and whispered to Alix, 

“ Five of my men are learning their faces and will 
see them home. Now if you will permit, I will take you 
home at once, Madame. Our work here is done,” and 
they went out together. 

“ Know who that was that walked off with your 
charmer, Jawge ?” said one of his friends to Alix’s tor- 
mentor. 

“ Don’t know him from Adam, dear boy.” 

“ That was Inspector Doane of Scotland Yard.” 

“ Lawd!” said Jawge. “ Wonder what she’s been up 
to.” 

“ Doane tackles none but the very biggest jobs,” said 
his friend. “ Good thing you didn’t take her in tow, me 
boy, or maybe you’d have been implicated.” 

“ Gad,” said Jawge. “ What an escape !” and tottered 
off to the bar to celebrate it. 

Doane convoyed Alix through the crowded passages 
to her carriage, and so to the hotel. He promised to re- 
port progress first thing in the morning, and drove rap- 
idly back to look after his men. 

He was in Alix’s sitting room before nine o’clock. 

“ They are at Bulow’s Flotel in Deane Street,” he re- 
ported. “ Two of my men are stopping there as guests, 
and one of them has the room next to those occupied 
by Vcn Ahlsen, who calls himself Herr Falcke, and his 
friend, who goes by the name of Herr Rosel. They 
cannot possibly escape us. But the boy is not there. 
Their plans are well laid. They have most likely left 


** WE HOLD THE HING/’ 

him somewhere in the country, with instructions as to 
his disposal if any hitch occurs here. They keep always 
together, probably because neither can trust the other 
where 00,000 is concerned. Now I advise paying 
over the money and making sure of the boy. We must 
take our chance of getting back the money afterwards. 
We will insert the advertisement at once in the Times^ 
and then wait for the wire from Vasco via.” 

The next day accordingly the advertisement “ Karl- 
chen, ready ” appeared in the second column of the 
Times ^ and two days later there came from Roystadt the 
following telegram, 

“ 70 ,000, 50 ;^5oo, 50 ^ 1 00. Letter follows.” 

Doane drove down at once with Alix to the Bank of 
England, and received notes of the denominations speci- 
fied,in exchange for her draft. His second circular for the 
bankers was all in type, simply awaiting the numbers for 
the notes, and soon after mid-day they were speeding 
far and wide over Great Britain and the Continent. 
That was all that could be done until the letter arrived 
from Vascovia giving the kidnappers instructions as to 
the delivery of the money. 

This arrived two days later, and the letter ran as fol- 
lows : — 

“ These delays are dangerous. If you fail to follow 
our instructions to the letter and to the minute, the boy 
will be lost to you for ever. Your messenger will bring 
the amount in notes of the following denominations, 70 

1,000, 50 ^500, 50 ;£‘ioo, made up into a neat par- 
cel to the Lyceum Theatre on the evening of the 29th 
instant. He will ask for Stall Number 26, and will hand 
the packet to the occupant of Stall Number 25 when 
requested to do so. Three days will be taken to com- 
plete the changing of the notes into gold. On the fourth 
day a telegram will arrive at the Victoria Hotel, North- 
umberland Avenue, addressed ‘ Rothstein,’ indicating 
where the boy may be found. We repeat once more 
and for the last time, — any failure on your part to com- 
ply with these instructions in the minutest detail will 
result in the disappearance of the boy for ever.” 


“ WE HOLD THE KING.” 309 

** They are a pair of clever scoundrels,” said Doane. 
“ hut even the cleverest sometimes meet their match. 
Pray keep your spirits up, Your Highness, we shall beat 
them yet.” 

And so in the light of Doane ’s cheerful self-confidence 
Alix possessed her soul in patience and waited for the 
evening of the 29th and looked forward with no little 
dread to the four days which must follow it. 

By this time she was so worn out with anxiety that 
she would gladly have sacrificed the money to make 
sure of recovering her boy, but Doane would not hear 
of this, and was quite certain of his ability to carry off 
the triple event and so to secure the boy and the money 
and the men. But the mother’s heart ached with anx- 
iety and fear lest in trying for too much they should 
lose all, or at all events the only thing that to her was 
now of any consequence. 

Alix’s first wish was to go herself to the Lyceum on 
the evening of the 29th, and occupy Stall Number 26 
and hand over the money to Stall Number 25. But 
Doane so impressed upon her the absolute necessity of 
his undertaking the duty himself, so that no possible 
chance of a clue might be lost, that she gave way and 
allowed him to go in her place. 

On the night of the 29 th accordingly, sumptuously 
arrayed in great expanse of fine linen, Inspector Doane 
sauntered into the vestibule of the Lyceum and enquired 
at the Box Office if Stall Number 26 was waiting for 
him. The Box Office informed him that it had been 
reserved for a gentleman who would apply for it. If he 
was the gentleman here was the ticket. He stated that 
he was the gentleman, the ticket was handed to him, 
and he took his seat. 

Stall Number 25 was empty. He looked forward 
with considerable curiosity to the arrival of its occupant, 
the representative of the kidnappers. 

The seat remained empty until well on into the first 
act when, to his intense surprise, a lady, young, beauti- 
ful, and exquisitely dressed, with diamonds flashing in 
her fair hair and from her white neck, came quietly past 
him, and dropped into the vacant seat. She paid not 


3 TO WE HOLD THE KING.*’ 

the slightest attention to him — in fact, so far as he conlcl 
see, she never even looked at him. He knew her well, 
however, and was convinced that there was some mis- 
take. He had known Madame Voronoff for several 
years by sight and reputation. She was a Russian and 
somewhat of a mystery. She lived in very good style, 
and it was generally understood that she held some 
kind of unofficial appointment from her Government 
for the futherance of their interests, though no actual 
representations had ever reached Scotland Yard to that 
effect. How could she possibly be mixed up in the kid- 
napping schemes of a Von Ahlsen and a Reitz ? 

Half-a-dozen of his men in various parts of the house 
were, he knew, eyeing his and her every movement. 
But it was all wasted energy. This elegant young lady 
could not possibly have anjdhing to do with the matter. 
He stood up during the next interval to survey the 
house and to look at the number of his seat. It was all 
right, number 26. All the same, he was convinced that 
there was some mistake somewhere. 

The play progressed. Irving and Ellen Terry at 
their best held the house entranced, but he saw next to 
none of it. His mind was concentrated on his fair 
neighbour and the problem she presented and the mis- 
take she represented. No slightest action of hers escaped 
him, but she bore herself exactly as any other grande 
dame who had come for the sole pleasure of the play. 
Her dainty mother-of-pearl lorgnette was fixed on the 
stage, her great plumed fan wafted fragrant zephyrs 
over him. 

Half-way through the third act, without any prelim- 
inary sign or warning, under cover of the slow sweep of 
the big fan, in her right hand now, she leaned slightly 
toward him and said quietly, 

“ You have something for me ?” 

He slid his hand into his pocket, and without a word 
placed in her waiting left hand among the folds of her 
dress the tightly made up packet of bank-notes. 

“ Thanks,” she said sweetly, and the big fan swept to 
and fro as regularly and evenly as a slow metronome. 

Then, folding it slowly and deliberately, she gathered 


GETTING CLOSER. 


31I 

Up her handkerchief and her lorgnette, drew her 
crimson-lined white satin cloak over her shoulders, and 
with a slight bow and an apologetic smile, passed in 
front of him and disappeared through the swing doors. 

He sat till the play was over, fully aware that other 
keen eyes would be watching him just as his own men 
had been watching the lady, aware also that wherever 
Madame Voronotf went there his men would follow her, 
in one way or another, with their eyes fully open to the 
fact that they were not the only ones who would be anx- 
iously following the lady with the 10 0,000. 

When the play was over Doane passed slowly out 
with the throng, and drove off to the Metropole where 
he had taken a room for the night, and within half-an- 
hour, in his ordinary attire, he was sitting in Alix’s room 
giving her an account of the evening’s doings. 

“ But if Madame Voronoff is what you suppose, how 
can she be mixed up in this matter?” asked Alix. 

“ I have been trying to see daylight and the nearest I 
have got to it is this, — that Madame is being made an 
innocent tool of by these men, or by someone in their 
interest. I feel certain she has no idea what that packet 
contains. It is quite likely she supposes it is political 
papers. Accept that theory and it is all easy.” 

“ Yes, I see,” said Alix. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

GETTING CLOSER. 

All Doane’s circulars proved just so much wasted 
labour. 

Von Ahlsen drove down himself to the Bank of Eng- 
land, and under the eyes of a couple of the Inspector’s 
keen-eyed emissaries, nonchalantly changed bank-notes 
to the extent of ^£ 20 , 000 ^ and packed the gold into the 
strong black leather bag which he had taken for the 


312 


GETTING CLOSER. 


purpose, as coolly as though it were an every-day opera- 
tion with him. 

The detectives followed him back to the hotel, and on 
receiving their report, Doane immediately took out a 
warrant for the apprehension of Von Ahlsen and Reitz 
on a charge of kidnapping. 

Five times the gallant captain repeated his Midas 
operation during that and the following day, and Doane 
redoubled all his precautions at the hotel with a view to 
checkmating the conspirators in their next move, which 
was bound to be a sudden flight abroad. 

To his immense surprise, he received, about mid-day, 
a telegram from one of his men who had been follow- 
ing up Von Ahlsen’s correspondence, to this effect : 

“ Have got the boy. Am bringing him to hotel. 
Secure the men.” 

He instantly despatched a messenger to Alix begging 
her to come round to Von Bulow's hotel at once, and his 
messenger returned with her in a cab. 

“ It is almost too good to be true,” he said, “ but it 
looks as if the game was up.” 

“ What time will they bring him ?” asked Alix 
eagerly. 

“ The telegram is from Lyndhnrst in the New Forest. 
I see there is a train arrives at 4.45. They will be here 
about five.” 

“ If they have got all the money will they not try to 
escape ?” asked Alix. 

“ If they do, I shall arrest them at once. My men are 
only awaiting the word.” 

A folded slip of paper was here brought in to Doane 
by one of his men. He opened it and said quietly, 

“ I think we had better act now. They have sent out 
for their bill, and are evidently contemplating a move. 
Will you wait here ?” he said. 

He went out and said a few words to the man who 
had brought the note, and in three minutes was stand- 
ing outside Von Ahlsen’s door, with half-a-dozen of his 
men all armed with revolvers. 

He tapped and a strong voice inside cried. 

“ Herein!” 


GETTING CLOSER. 


313 


He opened the door and walked in. 

Captain von Ahlsen and Major Reitz were still sitting 
at table over the remains of a meal which they had no 
donbt intended to be the last they would partake of in 
England. Major Reitz glared at them savagely, Von 
Ahlsen only lifted his black eye- brows and puffed out a 
volley of smoke. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Doane, “ the game is up. We 
have got the boy.” 

“ Bitte ?” said Von Ahlsen. 

Doane turned to one of his men who spoke German 
fluently and said, 

“ Tell them the game is played out and that the boy 
is in our possession.” 

“ So !” said Von Ahlsen as coolly as though the man 
had told him that his cab was ready at the door. 

Just then they heard a cab drive up to the door of the 
hotel, and its arrived was followed by a commotion in 
the little hallway down below. Then there came rapid 
steps up the stair, a peremptory knocking on the door, 
and Alix came in, flushed and almost crying. 

“ It is a mistake,” she said. “ It is not my boy at 
all;” and Von Ahlsen at the table laughed scornfully. 

“ I expected this,” he said in German, “ and have 
taken all precautions. The boy is where you will never 
find him. You are breaking the rules of the game, and 
I gave you fair warning. If by the day after to-morrow 
they don’t receive word from me to deliver him to you, 
he is put away for good.” 

“ You wretch!” said Alix. 

He bowed ironically and laughed. 

“ You see,” he continued, “ there is no telegram to 
send, no letter, in order to effect his disappearance. 
That is all provided for. His safety rests on mine. Now 
what are you going to do about it ?” 

Alix explained all this to Inspector Doane, and in 
reply to her anxious What shall we do ?” he said, 

“ I am going to sit right down here and keep my eyes 
on that man,” pointing to Von Ahlsen. “ The other 
will be taken to his own room, and three of my men will 
remain with him, and then we shall see what happens. 


314 


GETTING CLOSER. 


Take that gentleman away to his own room,” he addwd 
to his men, “ and don’t let him out of your sight.” 

Major Reitz, angrily protesting, was conducted to his 
own apartment, and Doane suggested to Alix that she 
should send to her hotel for whatever necessaries she 
needed, and remain upon the spot pending develop- 
ments. 

“ I think it would be as well,” he said, “ that you 
should remain here and see the game played out. Let 
us have a look at this boy,” he said. “ How came Jack- 
son to make such a fool of himself ? You three,” to his 
men, “ keep your eyes on this gentleman, and if he 
makes any attempt to escape, arrest him. If he shows 
fight, shoot him.” 

They went downstairs to inspect the little stranger. 
He was a little German lad with blue eyes and fair hair, 
and all that Alix could get out of him was that he had 
crossed the sea with his father and mother, and had then 
been taken away to the country, and left with a woman, 
where this man found him, and brought him back here. 
His name, he said, was Johann Kurtz, and his father 
and mother came from Bavaria. 

“ What on earth are we to do with him ?” said Alix. 

“ We had better keep him here at present,” replied 
Doane. “ We will ask the landlady to take charge of 
him. It will only be for a day or two, at most.” 

Doane determined to take the law into his own hands 
and to treat the case in a drastic fashion of his own. 
He explained as much as was necessary to Herr Von 
Bulow, who energetically protested his eagerness to act 
in every way to the satisfaction of the authorities. 

All through the night, accordingly, the opponents sat 
facing one another, three detectives to each of the kid- 
nappers, and at six o’clock next morning the guard was 
changed for a fresh one, who sat through the day, keen- 
eyed and watchful, till, to the prisoners at all events, the 
situation became more than irksome. No food was al- 
lowed into the rooms, except to the watchers, and by five 
o’clock on the second day, no food having passed the 
prisoners’ mouths for twenty-four hours, the sight of 
fheir captors feasting on chops and potatoes and tanfen 


GETTING CLOSER. 


515 

ards of ale, went a long way towards breaking down the 
equanimity with which Von Ahlsen had so far sustained 
the vigil. 

Major Reitz was in a state of utter collapse, and threat- 
ened, and begged, and prayed, and clamoured for food. 
He was a man of full body, and was not used to going 
without his meals, and the forced abstinence told upon 
him heavily. 

As the hour drew near which Von Ahlsen had indi- 
cated as the time when the little King would automati- 
cally disappear forever, Alix’s anxiety deepened into a 
very agony of apprehension, and at last she could bear 
it no longer. She begged Inspector Doane to let her go 
in and plead with Von Ahlsen for her boy. He con- 
sented somewhat unwillingly. 

“ Nothing will come of it,” he said. “ The man is a 
heartless devil, and has no more feelings than a stone. 
However, try if you like. I will go and try the other 
one.” 

He admitted her to the room, and Von Ahlsen chuckled 
when he saw her enter. 

“ What can I do for your Highness?” he said. 

“ Give me back my boy,” said Alix. 

“ But you do not play fair, Highness. We laid down 
the rules of the game, and you have broken them. The 
stakes are here, but we hold the King, and we intend to 
play out our hand.” 

“ Did you ever have a mother?” she asked. 

“ I am not sure. Highness, but think it possible, even 
likely.” 

“ Can you not feel for a mother bereft of her child?” 

“ And you. Highness, can you not feel for a man bereft 
of his money?” 

“ Will nothing move you?” 

** Oh, yes,” he laughed. “ Marry me, and you shall 
have the boy back.” 

For a brief second the hideous idea of sacrificing her- 
self for her boy presented itself to her mind as an ex- 
treme possibility, but it passed, and she Ipgked ^t hiin 
gravely and said. 

That is impossible,” 


GETTING CLOSER. 


316 

“ Not more impossible than that you can ever get him 
back without my help. Here are three possibilities/' 
and he ticked them off on his finger — “ the money — the 
boy — yourself. Either will do for me. The boy is no 
use except as a means to an end. I will barter him for 
either of the other — commodities." 

“ To think," she said, “ that any mother’s son can 
wring a mother’s heart so;’’ and with another heartless 
laugh ringing in her ears, she left the room. 

“ It is hopeless. He is heartless," she said to Doane, 
as she rejoined him in her sitting-room. “ What can we 
do?” 

“ Sit tight and wait," he said grimly, and somehow 
his firm-lipped self-confidence begot a spark of hope in 
her. 

All Von Ahlsen requests for food and drink were met 
by his three jailers with the indifference of noncompre- 
hension, and the muddy torrent of oaths with which he 
cursed their ignorance of his language and their inatten- 
tion to his wants, rolled innocuously over them for the 
same reason. 

He had a good supply of cigars, however, and all 
through the first night he smoked furiously and without 
intermission, except when he at last turned perforce to 
his water- jug to slake his thirst. So long as the cigars 
lasted he preserved his nonchalant, devil-may-care atti- 
tude, except when his hunger voiced itself in vehement 
cursing. 

But by the end of the second day the extreme fag end 
of his last cigar was finished, and he had burnt both 
fingers and moustache in the effort to get another whiff 
out of it. Then he raked through his portmanteau in 
the hope of finding one or two fugitives among his be- 
longings. He discovered one solitary cigar, but it was 
badly crushed and coming unrolled. He spent half-an- 
hour in carefully patching it up, and smoked it at inter- 
vals so that it lasted him half-way through the night. 
When it was finished he turned out the portmanteau 
again, and carefully searched between all his clothes. 
But the search yielded nothing, and he gave it up with a 
snarling oath, ' ^ 


GETTING CLOSER. 


317 

Then he took to pacing his end of the room vdth the 
vague restlessness of a caged beast. He was very empty 
and very hungry. Cigars and water formed but an in- 
different diet even for an old campaigner. His spirits 
began to droop and his nerves were getting limp for want 
of a smoke. 

He was tempted to break out single-handed on his 
silent jailers. If they had left him his revolver he would 
have made a dash for it, whatever the consequences. In 
fact, he was getting down to the point when men act not 
from motive l)ut from impulse. 

He scowled upon the three quiet watchers, as he turned 
on his beat, as the wild beast glares through his bars on 
the spectators outside. But they took not the slightest 
notice of him and he ground his teeth, and dug his heels 
into the carpet. 

As the pains and pangs of this unwonted hunger, and 
the dismal vacuosity which nothing but tobacco could 
satisfy, increased upon him, he extracted from his port- 
manteau a couple of rolls of sovereigns and ostenta- 
tiously counted them one by one, then re-rolled them in 
their wTappings and held them out towards the detec- 
tives, at the same time expressing in pantomime his de- 
sire for food and drink and more cigars. One of the 
men quietly accepted the proffered gold, put the rolls 
carefully into his pocket, and stolidly sat down again, 
and Von Ahlsen cursed him more volubly than ever. 

And so the day drew on, and the time when according 
to Von Ahlsen the little King would disappear for ever, 
unless word came from him to release him. 

In the afternoon Inspector Doane sent a maid to Alix’s 
room and asked to see her. The girl returned with a 
request for him to follow her, and Alix met him at the 
door with her eyes ablaze with hope. 

“ You have news ?” she said, as she caught sight of 
his face. 

“ Yes, news at last,” and his mouth relaxed into a quiet 
smile. Blackbeard — Reitz— has caved in. You can 
make an easy bargain with him. He hasn’t the grit of 
the other.” 

“ Where is he ? Shall I see him alone ?” 


GETTING CLOSER. 


318 

“ Yes, you must see him alone. I don’t countenance 
what you are going to do, but it is the quickest way, and 
we must make sure of the boy’s safety. He is in Num- 
ber 19.” 

Alix hurried off to Number 1 9 , barely catching Doane’s 
assurance, 

“ I will be outside. Tap on the door if you need me, 
but he is quite harmless.” 

Alix entered the room. Major Reitz, dishevelled and 
hungry-looking, was standing looking out of the window. 
He turned as she entered, and bov/ed. 

“ Highness!” he said deferentially, and Doane’s men, 
who were occuppng chairs near the door, got up and 
left the room. 

“You wish to see me ?” asked Alix, anxiety and nerv- 
ousness and loathing blended in her tone. 

“ With permission, Highness,” he said. 

“ Well ?” she asked icily. 

“ Those terrible men are starving me to death. Not 
a bite yesterday or to-day. I cannot stand more. I 
throw up the game.” 

“ My boy ? Where is he ?” 

“ He is safe. Highness, but unless he is recovered to- 
day — immediately — you may never recover him. Give 
me half the ransom and I will bring him to you at once.” 

“ I will give you anything they wdll let me give,” she 
said, her heart leaping so wildly that she could scarcely 
speak. 

“ Then it is understood,” he said brightening hope- 
fully. 

“Ah! I cannot bargain,” she said. “I can think of 
nothing but my boy. How soon can I have him ?” 

“ By the evening,” he said, “ if I go at once.” 

She tapped on the door. Doane entered, and Major 
Reitz swore feebly under his breath. 

“ He will bring me back my boy for half the money,” 
she said eagerly. 

“ Yes, I should rather think he would,” said Doane 
grimly. “ Your Highness is no hand at a bargain.” 

“ I want my bo}^” she said. 

“ And you shall have him, but we will pay no half cf 


GETTING CLOSER. 319 

the money. Do you ask me to undertake the negotia- 
tions ?” 

“ Yes, yes,” she said. “ Only get me my boy.” 

“ May I beg Your Highness to act as interpreter ? 
My German is about on a par with the Major’s English.” 

Then he turned to Reitz. 

“ In assisting Madame in these negotiations, I want 
you to understand that I do so unofficially. If I stick 
strictly to my duty, I carry you straight away to a prison 
cell, and you will only leave it for your trial, and will 
then return to it for life. Do you understand ?” 

The Major understood, and listened with anxiety tinged 
with hope. 

“ To assist Madame I am prepared to so far forget my 
duty as to let one of you go free on your producing the 
boy here safe and well within three hours. The one of 
you who decides to accept this offer first will have the 
first chance. What do you say ?” 

“ And the money ?” 

“ The money is in our hands and will stop there, of 
course.” 

“ But Madame said ” 

“ You are talking to me now.” 

“ But ” 

“ Your friend Von Ahlsen is now considering this mat- 
ter,” said Doane slowly. “ It is a question of minutes 
which decides first.” 

There came a tap at the door, and Doane opening it, 
received from one of his men a slip of paper, as he had 
arranged before entering the room . He opened it and 
smiled. Then, folding it leisurely into a long thin spill, 
looked up still smiling at the Major. 

That gentleman had gone pale with anxiety. His lib- 
erty for life hung on the turn of the seconds. Perhaps 
it was already too late — perhaps his chance had gone. 
He saw the prison wall looming up in front of him, and 
heard the gates clang to behind him. 

“ I accept,” he gasped. “ I will get the boy. Perhaps 
Madame, in her clemency, will not send me out into the 
world empty-handed!” 

“ That,” said Doane, “ is for Madame to decide. I 


320 WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 

had better know nothing about it. How soon can you 
get the boy ?” 

“ Two — three hours. I will go at once.” 

He looked questioningly at Doane. 

“ Two of my men will accompany you,” said the In- 
spector; and inside five minutes the Major, with a big 
package of sandwiches in his hand and a small bottle of 
hock in his coat-pocket, had started in a cab for the sta- 
tion attended by two of the detectives. 


CHAPTER XL. 

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 

Alix waited in a fever of anxiety, but the hours 
passed very slowly, and it was evening before Doane 
tapped at the door of her room, and one quick glance at 
his face showed her that something was wrong. 

“ What is it ?” she cried, as she sprang up from the 
couch where she had been lying. 

“ Their plans have miscarried. The man and woman 
with whom they left the boy, with instructions as to his 
disposal if no word reached them by four o’clock to-day, 
disappeared yesterday morning on their own account, 
taking the boy with them. In fact, they have tricked 
these men, their employers, and have played for their 
own hand. I am afraid our only hope now is that they 
may make some offer direct to Roystadt on their own 
account.” 

“ Oh, my poor little lad! My poor little lad!” cried 
Alix, and buried her head in the cushions and sobbed 
at thought of him being dragged from place to place 
like a bale of goods to be offered for sale. It crushed 
her spirit down to the ground. 

Doane waited patiently. He was almost as much upset 
at this failure as she was, but his aggravation showed 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 


321 


itself only in a tightening of the lines of the mouth, and 
a deepening of the up-and-down furrows in his brows. 

‘‘ Will your Highness see the men who went with the 
Major ?” he asked at last. 

She shook her head without looking up, and then with 
a sudden change of mind said, 

“ Yes, let me hear it all. And the Major, where is 
he ?” 

“ He is back in his room, all broken up. He had no 
idea of anything of the kind, I am sure.” 

“ Bring him in too, please.” 

Doane brought them all in. His men, savage at their 
useless quest. Major Reitz, pale and flaccid with the 
shadow of the prison walls dark upon him. 

“ Where is my boy ?” asked Alix of the Major. 

He raised and dropped both his hands in a gesture of 
despair. 

“ Highness,” he stammered, “ they have played us 
false. They were to wait with the boy at a certain place 
till four o’clock to-day. Then, if they had no word from 
us, they had their instructions. Instead of waiting they 
went away yesterday morning, and took the boy with 
them. Where and why God knows. 

“ Who were they ?” 

“ Kurtz, the big sergeant who was with me at Roy- 
stadt, and his wife. They were to have their share of 
the money. I have been thinking, maybe, they have 
gone to try and make their own bargain.” 

“ It is possible,” she admitted despondently. 

Doane’s men’s story confirmed their chief’s ideas as to 
the Major’s bona fides. He had led them straight to a 
small house in River Street, Gravesend, and had asked 
for Herr Kurtz. The woman of the house, a German, 
who, however, spoke English, threw up her hands at 
sight of him, and spoke fourteen to the dozen, and then 
turned to them,when the Major collapsed under her news 
and her volubility, and explained that the man Kurtz 
and his wife had left hurriedly the previous day, taking 
the boy with them. Alix eyed the man hungrily. 

“ I asked after the boy, Madame,” he said in reply to 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 


322 

her look, “ and the woman said he was well and well 
taken care of, but he seemed mopy and melancholy.” 

“ My poor little lad,” she said with a sob. 

“ She had no idea where they had gone, but she had 
heard them talking in their room the night before they 
left, and she was sure she heard America men- 
tioned ” 

Alix’s hand went to her heart. 

“ She had also heard the word ‘ Roystadt,’ but did 
not know where it was or anything about it. We in- 
quired at the railway station, but no one answering their 
description had been seen there. We went on to North- 
fleet and inquired there, but they had not been seen 
there either. Then we crossed over to Tilbury, but 
could get no news of them, and so we came home, bring- 
ing him with us,” and he jerked his head at the Major. 

“ Where can they have taken him?” asked Alix, look- 
ing at Doane. 

“ I must go myself and find out,” he said in a grim 
level tone which made his subordinates grind their 
teeth as they left the room. “ Meanwhile what about 
these men ? Ask him, Madame, if it is possible the other 
one upstairs has played him false. He is much the 
cleverer rogue. He is the brain, this is only one of the 
hands.” 

Alix put the question to the Major. 

He started, but after a moment’s thought said, 

“ No, it is impossible. It is Kurtz who has deceived 
us.” 

“ Still,” urged Alix, “ it is just as possible for Von 
Ahlsen to play you false as for you ” 

The Major’s face flushed dark red, but he said again, 

“ No, it is Kurtz who has deceived us. I will not 
believe anything else.” 

He looked at Alix with a sudden resolve in his eyes, 
and then voiced it half hopefully, 

“ Highness, give me my liberty and enough money 
for the purpose, and I \wll devote my life to discovering 
Kurtz and the boy. Kurtz I will kill. The boy I will 
restore to you.” 

She looked at him for a moment, then translated his 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. $ 2 ^ 

oflEer to Doane. Doane shrugged his shoulders con- 
temptuously, but after a moment’s consideration said, 

“ Before deciding that, I would like to confront these 
two and see what happens. May I beg your Highness 
to accompany ns and hear what they say ?” 

“ I will come,” she said, and they went up the stairs 
to the room where Doane ’s men still kept their silent 
watch on Von Ahlsen. 

He caught sight of them as he turned in his restless 
walk. He stopped dead, and glared at Reitz with eyes 
that blazed like live coals out of his lead- coloured face. 
Then through his clenched teeth he poured out a furious 
torrent of deep-throated oaths, calculated, in conjunc- 
tion with the fiery blaze of his eyes, to suggest to the 
onlookers considerable doubt as to the world ever being 
large enough to again hold the two of them. 

Reitz, however, eyed him steadily, and said briefly, 

“ Kurtz has bolted with the boy yesterday morning.” 

Von Ahlsen’s livid face flushed dark red for a mo- 
ment, and then resumed its leaden hue. 

“ You have been ?” he jerked. 

“Yes, but they are gone and no trace of them left.” 

Von Ahlsen had not moved since they entered the 
room. Now he twisted on his heel and resumed his 
monotonous tramp, with his chin on his chest and his 
eyes on the ground. Twice thus he tramped the width 
of the room, then without the slightest warning there 
came a sudden splintering crash, and he was gone, and 
the window was gone too, all but the hideous jagged 
teeth sticking out from the sides of the frame and all 
bent outwards. 

With startled eyes and bated breath the men leaned 
cautiously through the broken window, on account of 
the venomous spikes of glass, and craned over to meet 
the eyes of the horrified crowd in the street. 

It was a third floor window, down below was an orna- 
mental iron railing with fantastic barbs and spear-heads, 
and impaled thereon was a writhing horror which one 
minute before had been a man. 

That was the end of Von Ahlsen. 

When Doane came upstairs again he found that Alix 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. 


3^4 

had retired to her apartments, and Major Reitz had 
been taken back to his room by his keepers. 

Doane followed Alix and informed her that Von Ahl- 
sen was dead. 

“ And just as well, maybe,” he said. “ It relieves the 
situation. He would certainly have killed the Major if 
he had ever got the chance.” 

“ It is very terrible,” said Alix. “ What do you say 
about the other one searching for the boy ?” 

She was horrified and shaken, but ever her first and 
only thought was for her boy. 

“ It can do no harm,” said Doane, “ and every chance 
is worth taking. The money is a small matter. Don’t 
give him too much at a time and make him report to 
you regularly.” 

“ I am glad you approve. I should have been sorry 
not to have given him this chance. Will you please 
have him brought here ?” 

Doane went himself and brought the Major to her. 
He was still pale and anxious, and his eyes sought 
Alix’s eagerly as he entered. 

“ We have decided to give 5^ou this chance of redemp- 
tion,” she said. “ If you are deceiving us, it is between 
you and God. You have wrought me a grievous wrong. 
If you would repair it, restore my boy to me, and a 
mother’s blessing shall be yours.” 

“ Highness,” he said brokenly, “I will give my life to 
it,” and he added savagely, “ when I find that devil 
Kurtz, I will kill him !” 

“ Find me my boy. That is all I ask. This gentle- 
man will provide you with money, and will arrange for 
you to communicate with me, and to get more 'when 
needed. Now go and find my boy for me quickly.” 

For a week Doane searched and nosed round Graves- 
end, in futile endeavour to strike the trail of Sergeant 
Kurtz and his wife and the boy. But they had simply 
disappeared without exciting any comment, and before 
a week was over, he found it difficult to get anyone even 
to remember ever having seen them, so little attention 
had they attracted during their short stay. 

Major Reitz had remained in his company at Graves- 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEET.S. 


325 

end for the first few days, and had then decided to go 
over to Hamburg, as probably the most likely place for 
Kurtz to make for. He argued it out with Doane in 
his broken English pieced out with German, — 

“ He is a common fellow, this Kurtz. His first nat- 
ural idea would be to get to a country whose language he 
can speak. But he would fear the police supervision in 
most places, and Hamburg, he would know, is a place 
where all the world meets, and the police are not so 
strict there, and besides if it should be necessary for him 
to get away to America, where so good a place to go 
from as Hamburg ?” 

“ Worth trying, anyhow,” said Doane, and the Major 
went off to Hamburg, to waste his time there as Doane 
was wasting his around Gravesend and the East End of 
London. 

Every port in Britain was on the look-out for a small 
boy in charge of a tall man with grizzled beard and 
moustache, or of a short fat German woman, or of both. 
But as Doane truly said, they had probably only begun 
watching the stable door after the horse had left it, and 
the hope of any results from this careful inspection was 
of the smallest. 

And Alix, utterly broken down by this unexpected 
termination to her quest, turned her back on England 
and v/ent sadly back to Roystadt, doubting in her heart 
if ever she would see her little lad again. 

They received her there with tenderest sympathy on 
the part of Alicia and with brave and encouraging words 
of hope from Count Saxelstein and Dr. Ziemer. But 
all the same, as the summer days passed, and autumn 
began to fade into winter, and never a trace of the miss- 
ing boy was discovered, though she heard several times 
a week from both Doane and the Major, she began to 
lose hope, and when hope begins to die, the heart and 
the life grow very sick. 

Through the rich, ripe autumn days and nights she 
comforted herself with the thought that at all events the 
weather was warm, and little Karl would not suffer 
greatly even if he were exposed to it. But when the 
early winter storms came, and the wind and rain lashed 


326 DISTINGUISHED VISITORS FOR THE CASTLE. 

the Castle, night after night, then night after night she 
sobbed herself to broken restless sleep, and day by day 
she grew thinner and whiter and more hollow-eyed. 

And all the time never a single word of the boy and 
she said to herself that he was dead and reproached her- 
self bitterly for not having recovered him in London at 
any cost, though as a matter of fact there w’as not any 
single thing she could have done more than she had 
done. 

Doane was convinced that sooner or later the man 
Kurtz would communicate with them, as the boy was 
worse than useless to him except as a means of making 
money, and that for the same reason every care would 
be taken of him meanwhile. And of these things he 
never ceased to assure Alix in his letters. But all the 
same, no wmrd reached them and they were just as far 
from finding the boy as on the night they lost him. 

And in her sad, despondent heart the mother said to 
herself, 

“ He is dead, and there is nothing left for me to live 
for.” 


CHAPTER XLI. 

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS FOR THE CASTLE. 

One bright November day, tw^o passengers by the 
mid-day train issued from the static a at Roystadt and 
stood looking up at the splendour of the Castle on the 
rock. With a slight sprinkling of over-night snow on its 
terraces and battlements, it lay sparkling and flashing in 
the noonday sun like a mighty jew^el. 

The smaller of the two wore the soutane and broad- 
brimmed flat beaver of a priest. His face was the 
colour of dark leather, and his black eyes shone out 
vividly at the beautiful sight. 

“ Wonderful, wonderful !” he was still ejaculating 


distinguished visitors for the castle. 327 

when Herr Bruhl, the station master, hurried up hat in 
hand. 

“ Highness, pardon ! In the confusion I did not notice. 
Welcome home again.” 

“ Thanks, Herr Bruhl,” said Prince Alex. “ How is 
everyone at the Castle?” 

“ All well. Highness,” and then dropping his voice to 
a lower key, “ but the little King is still a- missing.” 

“ A-missing? How a-missing?” 

“ Himmel! Has your Highness never heard? Is it 
possible? Not a fortnight after your Highness started 
he was stolen — kidnapped it is supposed — and never a 
trace of him has been found. 

“ Stolen ? Kidnapped ! God in Heaven ! And 
his ” 

“ Come, my friend,” he said to the little dark-faced 
priest, “ let us hasten. There is trouble,” and he strode 
off towards the Castle road with the other trotting at his 
heels. 

The sentry at the gate of the barracks at the foot of 
the rock knew him and saluted. The guard at the Castle 
gate knew him and turned out to do him honour, while 
the officer sent one of them hot foot to inform Dr. Ziemer 
and Count Saxelstein of the distinguished arrival. 

“ I have only just heard this horrible news concern- 
ing little Karl,” said Prince Alex, as Dr. Ziemer came 
hurrying up with warm greeting. “ How has his mother 
borne it?” 

“ It has told upon her sadly, though she still tries to 
hope.” 

But how — who ?” 

“ It is a long story, your Highness. You shall hear it 
all. Your friend ” 

“ Ah! that is Father Pedro, from the Mission of Sao 
Gregorio.” 

Dr. Ziemer wrung the little dried-up hand warmly, 
and they passed up the steps together. 

Alicia had heard of Prince Alex’s arrival and came 
flying along the corridor. 

“ Oh, Alex, how glad I am to see you again !” 


328 DISTINGUISHED VISITORS FOR THE CASTLE. 

“ Ah!” gasped little Father Pedro, who mistook her for 
her cousin. 

He came forward and bent his knee, and took her 
hand and kissed it, and looked at Prince Alex and said, 

“ It is she.” 

“ Who is it !” asked the Princess regarding the little 
dark seamed face in astonishment. 

“ He mistakes you for Alix. Where is she, Alicia, 
and how is she? I have only just heard this terrible 
news.” 

“ Here she is to speak for herself,” said Alicia, as Alix 
who had also been informed of their arrival, came along 
the passage to meet them. 

She recognized Father Pedro at once, but first she 
warmly welcomed Prince Alex, and then turning to the 
other she called him by his name. 

He started, but so worn and changed was she with the 
corroding griefs of the last few months, that it was with 
difficulty he could bring himself to believe that this was 
the bright-faced girl whom he had married to her lover 
at his little mission station up on the Maranon. 

However, a few words between them set that matter 
straight, though the little priest’s eyes, were constantly 
wandering to Alicia, who was very much closer to his 
recollection of Alix than was Alix herself. 

Prince Alex’s heart was heavy within him at sight of 
her pale, sad face and dark, hollow eyes, and the tale of 
suffering they told. 

Greetings over, Alix bade them all to her morning- 
room, and there Dr. Ziemer told Prince Alex the full 
story of the loss of little Karl and of all their futile ef- 
forts for his recovery. 

“ I still believe we shall get him back all right, sooner 
or later,” said the Doctor, “ but the waiting is terrible. 
It is not to be wondered at that his mother’s heart is 
sick and sore.” 

Prince Alex laid his hand on Alix’s white, trembling 
one, and said, 

“ You have permitted me to solve one of your difficul- 
ties. God grant I may be as fortunate in this quest as 
in the last. I will start without delay.” 


THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 329 

Alix bent her head, and pressed her lips tight to keep 
back the tears. 

“ You have satisfied yourself as to the validity of the 
marriage?” asked Dr. Ziemer. 

“ Absolutely, and have brought back my proofs with 
me,” and he nodded towards Father Pedro. “ That was 
an easy task. This is more difficult. You seem to have 
so little to go upon. But if he is alive, I will find him 
and I will never rest till he is back here again.” 

For a moment Alix flushed hot at remembrance of the 
traitorous thoughts her bruised heart had once harboured 
against him. 

Then of a sudden there arose from the direction of 
the Castle gateway the sound of a great shouting. It 
drew dearer. They eyed one another in surprise, and 
then Prince Alex sprang up and flung open the door. 


CHAPTER XLII. 

THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 

Very early that same morning, while the frost fog was 
still lying in swaths over the lov/ meadovz-land, a tall, 
grizzled, unkempt man sat iip from the ground where he 
had slept through the night, wrapped up in an old mili- 
tary blanket. He stretched out his long lean arms and 
yawned, and scratched his head thoughtfully, and looked 
down at the bundle of blankets by his side. He was cold 
in the extremities, for he was rather too large for the 
blankets. 

He got up and flapped his arms together, and smote 
the ground with his feet to get the circulation back, and 
his breath was like smoke in the frosty air. 

The sun came up large and red, and grew yellow and 
whiter, and smaller and warmer, as it sucked up the fog. 
Away, many miles away, to the south something flashed 


330 THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 

in the brilliant sunbeams, and as the day grew clearer 
it showed itself as the rock and Castle of Roystadt. 

Then the big man poked the blankets with his foot 
and they wriggled, and there sat up among them a dark- 
haired little lad with his not over- clean fists knuckling 
the last of the sleep- dust out of his eyes. He frowned 
and blinked at the brightness of the sun, and scowled at 
the big man towering above him. 

The big man had taken a hunk of black bread out of 
his pocket, and was breaking off pieces and chewing 
them like a meditative cow as he watched the boy. 
Now he broke the bread in two, and tossed half to the 
small boy, who grabbed it and bit into it hungrily with 
his little white teeth. 

The big man stooped, and lifted him up out of the 
blankets on to his shoulder, and steadying him with one 
hand, pointed with the other towards the Castle, and the 
rock. 

“ Do you know what that is ?” he growled. 

The small boy gazed and gazed, his jaws forgetting 
to work in his jojrtul recognition of his surroundings. 

“ Well,” said the man. “ Do you know where you 
are ?” 

“ Yes,” said the boy. “ That is the Castle,” and then 
he said softly to himself, '* Miitterchen, miitterchen !” 

“ Ay,” growled the man, “ miitterchen. And now you 
can go to her. There is the road down there.” 

He set him down on his sturdy little legs. The boy 
started off at once for the road, and the man stood watch- 
ing. The boy turned and waved a hand. 

“ Good-bye,” he cried, “ Auf wiederschen.” 

The man growled and stooped over the blankets, 
rolled them up military fashion, flung them round his 
neck and strode rapidly away in the opposite direction. 

The small boy scrambled over the tripping entangle- 
ment of the whins and ferns, till he dropped into the 
road. Then he set his bright face to the rock and 
tramped steadily on towards it. 

His head was bare but well covered with a thick shock 
of wavy black hair. He wore a blue smock, girt round 
the waist with a cord, and his legs were cased in a pair 


THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 33 1 

of trousers full of rents and tears, which had been 
adapted to his size by the simple application of the short- 
ening shears. 

His feet were bare, and whenever a runlet of water 
crossed the road, he danced into it and kicked up glit- 
tering showers of spray, and laughed aloud with glee. 
Then he would stand still and watch the smooth glassy 
flow close over his blue-pink toes, and now and again he 
would pick up from the channel some peculiarly tempt- 
ing round pebble, and carefully dry it on his sleeve, and 
place it in his trouser pocket, whence it speedily made 
its way back to the road. 

But always after each such diversion, when his eye 
caught sight of the rock and the shining Castle in the 
distance, he would pull himself together with a jerk, toss 
up his head, and start off along the road at a trot, till 
he came to the next runlet, when he would go through 
the whole performance again. 

It was the day after market-day at Roystadt, so there 
was no chance of a lift in that direction. A few belated 
peasants, who had stretched the great day of the week 
beyond its natural limits, were jogging slowly home- 
wards, but they were heavy-eyed and listless, and took 
no notice of the little scarecrow who danced merrily 
along in the opposite direction, and occasionally flung a 
pebble at the tempting white tilts of their carts. 

So he went on, murmuring to himself in a sing-song, 
“ Miitterchen, miitterchen, I want my little miitterchen,” 
till at last the rock loomed big above him, and the jour- 
ney was nearly at an end. 

When he reached the comer of the barrack wall two 
ways were open to him — right round the town side of 
the barracks and past the big gates, whereby he would 
see the soldiers, — or up the slope behind the barracks, 
whereby he would cut off a considerable piece of the 
road. His healthy little stomach grumbled that it was 
near feeding-time. He chose the slope, as leading more 
directly towards food, and the end of his journey; be- 
sides he would see soldiers at the Castle. 

He struck up the rock like a little goat, using both 
hands and knees, kept the barrack wall on the left, and 


332 THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 

in due course arrived within sight of the rock road up 
to the Castle. 

As he lay flat on his stomach for a moment, panting 
and flushed, before dropping over into the road, the sen- 
try from the small private door leading into the officers’ 
quarters of the barracks, came tramping up on his beat, 
and stood for a moment looking up towards the Castle. 
As he turned to go back, a rosy dark face lifted for a 
minute from its cover, a small arm swung, and a pebble 
caught the sentry cleverly between the shoulders. He 
turned sharply with a suppressed oath, and looked 
keenly all round and up above. Then he swung round 
to his beat again, and tramped away. 

The small boy lay in ecstasy. In five minutes the 
man came back, leaned on his gun again, and took a 
careful look round. Not a sign, nor a sound of anything 
but himself. He shouldered his gun and started back on 
his slow methodic tramp. Again the rosy face popped 
up, the little arm swung, and this time the pebble caught 
the sentry in the neck. He swore a big oath, and came 
up to the end of his beat again. The boy grimped to 
his cover like a hunted hare, and when he fboked up the 
man had gone. 

He would dearly have liked to try again, but time was 
passing, and he was beginning to feel very empty. He 
scrambled down into the road, and ran away up it till 
the little plateau, where the Maxims had stood that other 
morning, suggested itself as an advantageous position 
whence to hurl defiance at his friend the sentry. 

He scrambled up accordingly and proceeded to exe- 
cute a war-dance for the edification of the few loiterers in 
the barrack yard, and for the enlightenment of the puz- 
zled warrior below. 

The sentry connected the little dancing figure with his 
late bombardment, and made as though to bring him 
down with his gun, at which the little arms anS legs 
jigged faster than ever, and a merry laugh of defiance 
came floating down the slope. 

Then, much refreshed, the small boy sobered down 
and tackled the steep road with vigour. He arrived in 


THE MOST DISTINGUISHED VISITOR OF ALL. 333 

sight of the great gates of the Castle, with a sentry stand- 
ing on either side in front of a blue and white box. 

He walked quietly up and made as though to go 
through, when the two men, who had been watching his 
progress quizzically, each took two steps forward, and 
dropped the barrels of their guns so that the bayonets 
just met and formed a gleaming steel barrier in front of 
him. To their surprise he showed no signs of fear. He 
simply raised his rather dirty little right hand to the sa- 
lute, then dropped it and stood looking enquiringly at 
them. 

“ Well, little rag-a-bag, what do you want here ?” 
asked one. 

“ I want my mother.” 

“ Dear, dear ! he wants his mother ! And why do yon 
come up here to look for her ?” 

“ She is inside. Let me pass, please.” 

“ Run away, sonny, or you’ll be getting into trouble.” 

“ What is it, Hans ?” It was the officer of the gate 
who had heard the talking outside. 

“ A little beggar- boy wants his mother, Herr Lieu- 
tenant. Says she’s inside.” 

The lieutenant looked questioningly at the small boy, 
whose dirty little hand rose to the salute again with all 
the easy grace of habitude. 

“ Let me in, please,” he said. 

The lieutenant’s eyes opened wide, and sudden light 
dawned upon him. 

“ Mein Gott!” he said. “ You fools! Salute! It is 
the King! Guard, turn out! Salute! Hoch, hoch, 
hoch, for the King !” 

The rosy dark face broke out into merry smiles, as the 
cheers rang like thunder through the arches. 

Then the lieutenant seized him, and hoisted him on to 
his shoulder, and so ran up the steps towards the King’s 
corridor, and sped along it, and as he came opposite the 
Princess Alix’s sitting-room the door opened suddenly 
and Prince Alex came out, and then fell back with a 
glad shout of amazement. 

The lieutenant stepped proudly into the room and 
dropped the boy into his mother’s arms, drew himself up 


334 the most distinguished visitor of all. 

to his full height, saluted, turned on his heel, and disap 
peared. 

Little King Rag- a- bag lay in his mother’s arms be 
tween laughing and crying, and she, scarce able to hole 
herself for joy, could find no words, but hugged him tc 
her tight and close, and kissed him wildly through he: 
tears. The others gathered round, a loving circle o: 
congratulation and enquiry, and Father Pedro’s blacl 
eyes sparkled and his little martyr soul was stirred withir 
him as never before in the whole course of his exist- 
ence. 

Then the great bells of the Cathedral down below be- 
gan clashing madly and joyfully, and the glad shouts oi 
the townsfolk gathered in the Great Square came float- 
ing up the rock, and in some incongruous fashion — per- 
haps the bells had something to do with it — made the lit- 
tle dark-skinned priest think of the pinch of incense he 
allowed himself to burn on high feast days in the little 
mission house on the Upper Marafion. 

A great burst of oheering from the direction of the 
Castle gateway told them that some of the more active 
bodies and more exuberant spirits had climbed the rock 
road and were clamouring to see their King, and from 
Prince Alex came the paternal suggestion that the ap- 
pearance of the youthful monarch would not suffer if he 
underwent the ceremony of a hot bath, and was supplied 
with some decent clothing. 

“ And may I have something to eat, Mlitterchen ?” 
plaintively asked the King. “ I’ve had nothing since I 
got up but a bit of Kurtz’s black bread.” 

“ Oh, you poor little mannie,” and his Aunt Alicia flew 
to the bell rope. 

Leona had evidently been waiting outside, for she was 
in the room, and kneeling by the boy’s side, dissolved in 
tears of joy and self-reproach, before the bell had fully 
sounded, while ’Toinette, sparkling all over with happi- 
ness, came in close on her heels. 

“ Run, ’Toinette, quickly, and bring food. He is starv- 
ing. Bring meat, wine, — everything, and be quick!” 

“ ’Toinette, my child,” said Count Albert, “ just bring 
^ small bowl of that soup we had for breakfast, and a 


the most distinguished visitor of all. 335 

slice of fowl and some bread — nothing else. You’ll have 
him ill,” he said to the Princess. “ He has been faring 
plainly, and the plain fare has evidently suited him. 
You must break him gently to all your luxuries.” 

The shout that rose from the great courtyard when 
the little King, washed and fed and clothed, came in 
holding his mother’s hand, was like the roar of a volcano 
and made the windows rattle in their frames. And as 
the lusty throats and waving hats told all the gladness of 
the stout warm hearts, the mother’s eyes filled with happy 
tears as she caught sight of a tightly shuttered window, 
and the joy of the present was deepened by the remem- 
brance of those other days when she was only allowed 
to peep at her boy through her prison bars. 

A right glad day it was for Vascovia when the little 
King came home and the great reproach was wiped out. 

It was not very much that they were able to learn 
from little Karl as to his travels. 

He remembered the long night ride under a horse- 
man’s cloak with a handkerchief tied over his mouth. 
His mind still carried the threats of his captors before 
they boarded the train. He remembered his photograph 
being taken, and he had vivid recollections of the little 
house where the German woman lived and whence 
Kurtz and his wife stole away by night and were taken 
on board a small ship in the river, probably by the ship’s 
own boat, which would account for the lack of trace of 
their disappearance. The ship landed them in a country 
where the people spoke neither Raatauan, nor English, 
nor German, and there they lived for some time, mov- 
ing hurriedly now and then from place to place till 
Kurtz’s wife died, and then the man and the boy wan- 
dered over the country together without stopping any- 
where long. They had never treated him badly, and 
what they had they gave him a share of, but as he said, 
briefly and expressively, “ It was different.” Then 
Kurtz himself fell ill for a time, and when he grew bet- 
ter they set off and walked and walked, and then one 
morning when he woke Kurtz pointed out tne Castle in 
the distance and told him to go home to his Miitterchen, 
and he was glad and came home. 


TWO BRIDES ON WHOM 


336 

He seemed no whit the worse for his open air life and 
Spartan faring. His limbs were straight and strong, his 
eyes bright and clear, and his flesh firmer far than a six 
months’ course: of Castle dainties would have rendered it, 
and his mind was all too young and clean to carry any 
very deep impression of the shadier sides of the paths 
in which he had been wandering. 


' 

CHAPTER XLIIL 

TWO BRIDES ON WHOM THE SUN SHONE BRIGHT. 

On Christmas day, six weeks later, the red winter sun 
looked down on a Roystadt such as it never remembered 
to have seen before, since the first square tower was 
built on the rock, and the first mud huts nestled at its 
base. And if the sun had never seen such a glorious 
day, the memory of the oldest inhabitant was not likely 
to have much show in the running. 

Every house was hung with flags and streamers, tall 
poles lined all the roadway from the foot of the rock- 
road to the Cathedral, with festoons of greenery hung 
between, both lengthways and across, so that the road 
was one long tunnel of winter foliage, and the ground 
was thickly strewn with sweet smelling pine needles, and 
it all looked as though a bit of the Schwartzberg had 
fallen down into the town. The troops were there, not 
for use but for show, every man prinked out in his best, 
and flashing back the red sun’s rays from every point 
in him that could by dint of labour be burnished up to a 
flash, and every man of them Vascovian born and bred. 
And, truest and brightest decoration of all, the bright 
happy faces of the people, — the townsfolk and the coun- 
try folk from far and wide, the old folk who remem- 
bered, and the young folk picked out of their cradles 
who had not yet begun to think, and all the folk that 


THE SUN SHONE BRIGHT. 33/ 

came between, and who would never forget this day 
down to the very last day of their lives. 

For to-day the little King and all the royal house were 
to go in state to the Cathedral, to render solemn thanks 
for the safe return of the King to his country, and, as a 
fitting climax to the happy occasion, two royal weddings 
were to be celebrated at the same time. And the brides 
were the two loveliest women in all Vascovia, and they 
bore each the same name, and they were so much alike 
in their beauty that no one could tell them apart. And 
the more jovial masculine spirits made sly jokes as to 
the possibility of their getting mixed up before the altar, 
and being wedded to the wrong men, and the women 
folk laughed them to scorn and told them if that was all 
they knew they had better keep their mouths shut, and 
not let all the world know what very great fools they 
were. 

And up above, the Castle and the Rock sparkled and 
glittered in the sun under a thin sprinkling of snow, 
like a gigantic wedding-cake, with the royal blue and 
white standard stuck in the top, and the eyes of the 
people were fixed on it for the first sight of the proces- 
sion. 

Then from the South tower which overlooks the 
town, there came a puff of white smoke like a fleecy ball 
of cotton, and as it melted away into the blue, there 
came down to the waiting ears below the boom of the 
gun that told them the King had passed through the 
gates, and a tremor of satisfaction ran through the 
crowd, and a momentary silence fell upon them all, and 
expectation stood a-tiptoe. 

They caught an occasional glimpse of the bobbing 
procession, and the shining gun-barrels winding in and 
out among the rocks, and then they all came slowly 
down the broad road by the barrack gates. And there 
they halted while the ladies changed from their sedan 
chairs to the great state coaches which awaited them, 
for no carriage save a gun-carriage had ever climbed the 
rock. 

It took full five minutes to effect the necessary changes, 
and then they came slowly along down the green tunnel, 


*rWO BRIDES ON WHOM 


33B 

and then the people let themselves go, and roared and 
shouted and waved and wept, in very frenzy of delight. 

The little King sat alone in the back seat of the car- 
riage, beamingly happy as he acknowledged the greet- 
ings of his people in military fashion. The two Alicias, 
his mother and his aunt, sat side by side in the front 
seat, and for the life of them the people could not tell 
which was which, they were both so radiantly beautiful, 
their dark eyes sparkling softly, and their faces pale with 
the excitement of the day, and both dressed exactly alike, 
even to the furs that partly hid their wedding garments. 

Little Karl had wanted his mother beside him, but 
she, knowing how all the people would want to see their 
King, had thought best to leave them an uninterrupted 
view, and this consideration of hers by placing her 
alongside her cousin had added the finishing touch of 
puzzling piquancy to a never-to-be-forgotten sight. 

Behind them, on their champing chargers, came 
Prince Alex and Count Albert of Saxelstein, two mag- 
nificent figures in wonderful white uniforms, proud and 
happy men both of them, and between them rode Dr. 
Ziemer, white haired and straight, with a satisfied smile 
on his face. 

Then came more carriages, and more tall resplendent 
figures on horseback, — Rothsteins of various branches 
from far and near, — and last of all a carriage in which 
sat a frail and white-haired old man, with a somewhat 
dazed look in his feeble eyes, and opposite him a sweet- 
faced old lady, with a similar look in hers, which were 
not at all feeble. 

And when these came past the spot where stood the 
men from Alplanau, the very houses shook with the 
greeting the mountain men gave their chief. For this 
was old Count Johann, very grateful for having lived to 
see this day, and when the sweet-faced old lady opposite 
him wondered at the tears which ran down his withered 
cheeks, and asked him in defective German who these 
were, he replied brokenly, 

“ Madame, these are my own people. It was from 
my house the King was stolen. We are all very grate- 


THE SUN SHONE BRIGHT 

fill that the wrong is righted and our reproach wiped 
out.” 

And then the old lady nodded cheerily to a clean- 
shaven, good-looking young man in the crowd, and the 
young man nodded back somewhat gloomily; For this 
was Geoffrey Chillingham, and the sweet-faced old lady 
was his mother. 

Mrs. Chillingham had set her heart on coming 
whenever she received Alix’s letter, for the girl had 
crept into her heart. Geoffrey had at first refused to 
consider the idea of going, but when he found his 
mother’s heart so set upon it, he dutifully sank his own 
feelings and braced himself to bring her, but he would 
not stop at the Castle and he would not go to the cere- 
mony. 

Alix had forgotten none of her friends. Even Mr. and 
Mrs. and the Misses Staite away out in Sydney had re- 
ceived an invitation to the royal wedding, and if it had 
been at all within the possibilities of time and distance, 
they most certainly would have accepted it. Master 
Richard vSavage’s invitation jumped him two steps up 
the ladder, and Captain Gillies only received his 
several weeks after the event. But Inspector Doane 
from Scotland Yard was there, noting everything with 
keen, professional eye, and contrasting this day with 
other darker days. He and Chillingham were both stop- 
ping at Dr. Ziemer s house, and had foregathered as 
Englishmen stranded in a foreign country have a way 
of doing. Doane frankly explained the reason why he 
was there. Chillingham simply stated that he had 
brought his mother over as she was so set on coming, 
and said nothing whatever as to his own relations to- 
wards Alix, which under the circumstances was natural 
enough. As for the old lady herself, Alix would not 
hear for a moment of her stopping anywhere but at the 
Castle, and they were to one another as mother and 
daughter. In the course of a long life old Mrs. Chilling- 
ham had seen many bright and happy days, but never 
any brighter and happier than those she spent in the 
Castle of Roystadt, mothering her princess, and grand- 
mothering the little King. 


§40 TWO BRIDES ON WHO^l THE SUN SHONE BRIGHT. 

All the morning, since first the snn broke out, the beh i 
had been clashing merrily. Now at last they ceased, and 
in the palpitating silence that fell upon them, the thonghts 
of the people followed their hearts into the vast grey 
pile that had swallov/ed up the brilliant procession, and 
in imagination they could see their little King kneeling 
on the velvet cushion by the side of his fair young 
mother. 

So, in reverent silence, they waited for the space of 
nearly an hour, and then with a crash that startled the 
throngs into sudden life, and loosened every tongue, and 
.started every lusty throat a-shouting, the ringers leaped 
up the ropes, and the great bells burst out into a wild, 
mad carmagnole of delight. 

For there in the great grey house of God, the heart of 
the people had gone up to heaven in the incense of grati- 
tude, and the fortunes of the nation had been strength- 
ened and buttressed by the binding together of four 
loyal hearts. The Castle on the Rock was nearer to the 
plain than ever it had been before, and the good old days 
of peace and good-will had come back again to Vascovia. 


THE END. 



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There is no writer of ihe present day who excels A. S. Roe, in his particular line of 
fiction. He is distingu’shed by his fidelity to nature, his freedom from affectation, his 
sympathy with the interests of everyday existence and his depth and sincerity of feeling. 
His stories appeal to the heart, and strengthen and refresh it.” 


True to the Last 

A Long Look Ahead . . . 
The Star and the Cloud 
I’ve Been Thinking. . . . 
How Could He Help It. 
iJke and Unlike. 


I 50 
I 50 
I 50 
I 50 
I 50 
I 50 


To Love and To Be Loved. .$i 50 

Time and Tide j 50 

Woman Our Angel i 50 

Looking Around i 50 

The Cloud on the Heart. .. . 150 

Resolution 









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